4th Generation
by Storm Caleum
Summary: The Grand Magic Games; A tournament held every year to decide the strongest guild. This year will be the best yet. Blue Pegasus gained two very interesting new members. As the games go on, a prophecy is revealed. Five extraordinary wizards in battle, spilt blood of the highest order, an astrological event said to be impossible and a sacrifice. What will happen on the final day?
1. Well That Escalated Quickly

**Chapter 1**

**Well That Escalated Quickly**

"I can't believe we are actually here." An excited giggle echoed through the dark passageway. All the guilds have gone through the sky labyrinth and the top eight were being announced. Blue Pegasus was one of them, though they did not come in first place but fourth place. It was ok considering the past happenings of the guild but this year, everything will change. This year, Blue Pegasus had allowed two very interesting mages into their ranks. These mages were their trump cards. No one had ever heard their names before or even knew about them or their magic.

"Well, you better believe it." Eve said through the darkness of the hallway. The team had already reached the door and was waiting for their guild to be called. Then they would make an extravagant entrance just like they always do. "Oh, and you guys might want to put these on." The snow mage handed two people each, a plain black hoodie.

The figures sighed and nodded in the darkness before putting the garments on. They flipped the hood up to conceal their identity. "At least this is warm." The shorter one mumbled before rotating her ears a degree or so to try and listen to the outside voices. That stupid pumpkin still hadn't finished the opening speech!

"Now, now Aster and Sofia." Hibiki lightly scolded with a smile on his face. It was evident that even he was excited about this year's games. "Remember to smile and act excited for the marvellous entrance we will make."

Both the girls looked at each other with doubt. "And if we don't?" They questioned in unison. An evil glint sparked in Hibiki's eyes. He leaned in close to the two and whispered, "Then you will have to deal with our sensei: Ichiya- Dono." The blonde pointed at the so called "Ace" of Blue Pegasus who was doing poses under a beam of light with sparkles surrounding him.

The girls shuddered as they recalled their last meeting with him. Ichiya gave everyone the chills not just because he used many disgusting perfume magic like the armpit perfume and garbage perfume but, he flirts with every girl he sees despite their age difference.

"Fine." They sighed just as the pumpkin announced their guild. The double doors opened to reveal almost the entire female population cheering for them. The newest members of Blue Pegasus followed the older members into the light.

"It looks like we have two new additions to the Grand Magic games this year! Kabo!" The pumpkin cried gleefully as he pointed a long, wooden staff at the people in the black hoodies.

"Give a warm welcome to Sofia Phire and Aster Sang!" The crowd cheered mildly as the two members of Blue Pegasus waved to the crowd. "Rumour has it that the duo has never been beaten before! Let's see if that rumour is true Kabo!" The pumpkin allowed them guild to listen to their adoring fans for a bit longer before moving onto the next guild.

"In third place is…" Another wave of cheers entered Aster's sensitive ears but one voice called out to her. She turned her head to look at the other competing guilds until she saw where the voice originated from.

A head of pink spiky hair kept on yelling about challenging the newcomers while a redhead punched him unconscious. It was comical to watch but something about the pinkie was off. Aster shook the thoughts out of her head and paid attention to the announcer.

"And in first place- without a surprise- is Sabertooth!" The crowed was cheering like crazy as five mages made their way into the arena. The only ones showing any emotion were the blonde and the green haired man. Both were eating up the crowd's applause and turning it into confidence and cockiness.

A shiver ran down Aster's spine as she saw the spiky haired blonde, the red eyed brunette, the pinkie and the iron face man glare at one another. She turned to look at Sofia to see her staring at the green haired man of Sabertooth and the pink haired girl from Lamia Scale.

The two newcomers looked at one another before they nodded. It was clear as day, Dragon and God slayers were participating in the Grand Magic Games. 'This is going to be a fun tournament.' The taller mage -Aster- thought.

"On each day of the GMG's, there will be four battles and one hidden event. No one knows what the hidden event is or when it will take place. Every guild will choose one person each day to compete in the hidden event. Points shall be awarded with the 1st place team getting ten points and the last team getting no points. Is that clear? Kabo?"

The pumpkin man looked at each of the guilds with his unblinking eyes. "Furthermore, the battles will be single and double battles with the winning teams receiving ten points and the loser getting none."

"And now that the events are explained, send in a member of your team and the games shall begin Kabo!" The pumpkin jumped in the air and danced towards the judges. "And we do not take responsibility for any deaths that occur!"

"What a weird pumpkin." Sofia shrugged, her face covered by the hoodie. "So, who's going first?" She turned to the rest of the Blue Pegasus team which consisted of her, Aster, Eve, Hibiki and Ichiya. Originally, Ren and the rabbit man were supposed to participate but both fell extremely ill before the games.

"I'll go." Hibiki volunteered with a wink to the females in the stands. Loud squeals echoed through Domus Flau and assaulted Aster's ears. "Would you keep it down?!" She hissed in annoyance as she massaged her ringing ears.

"Heh, sorry." The blonde scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously before walking to the center where all the other contestants were gathered. While the pumpkin explained the event, the rest of the Blue Pegasus participants walked to their guild balconies to watch the event.

"What do you think the hidden event is going to be about?" Sofia murmured as she tried to see over the ridiculously high brick wall that prevented mages from falling into the arena. She was short for a twelve year old with her forehead only reaching a centimetre above the four foot wall.

"Well… judging by what is happening right now, I'd say everyone is sent to a magic created town with clones of the competitors." Aster picked up the short mage and set her on the top of the brick wall so she could see. "And if the player attacks a clone, they loose one point but if they attack another mage, they gain a point." The team watched the battle intently and observed the abilities of the participants.

"Hidden… what an interesting game." The archive mage smiled as he saw the many clones of everyone participating. 'This should be a piece of cake for my archive magic.' He thought lightly before closing his eyes and letting golden holographic screens appear around him. Hibiki swiftly looked for the spell he needed since the golden glow of his magic might attract unwanted attention.

The man's eyes darted rapidly across the screen until they found what they were searching for. "Bingo." He tapped a button before seven bursts of light erupted from the screen, heading off to locate his opponents. Now it was only a matter of time before Blue Pegasus wins the event.

The crowd "Ooed" and "Ahhed" at the seven beams of light that supposedly shot out of nowhere. The mages however, knew otherwise.

"That magic… it's Hibiki, isn't it?" Sofia said with a blank face as she stared at the light. It almost looked like comets falling onto Fiore. The streaks of light darted out to random areas of the fake town and there were cries of surprise as the light hit the targets.

From lacrima vision, the audience could see each competitor being surrounded by a golden glow of light. Their clones however, remained unaffected and continued to trudge along slowly.

"Focus Blast!" Three holographic hexagon shapes appeared in front of a girl that looked like she lived on a farm most of her life: Beth Vanderwood, Mermaid Heel's representative. The force of the blast caused her to fly into the air and crash into a building, knocking her out.

"Sorry about that dear but, I intend to win for my guild!" Hibiki still had his womanizing charms but had a higher goal in mind. He swiftly blended in with the rest of the clones and looked around for the other competitors. A flash of gold caught his eyes as he ran towards it. He ducked behind a building and poked his head out to see who or what was glowing.

"ARG! This stupid glow! Get it off!" He saw Jager from Quatro Cerberus trying to get rid of the locator spell around him. Unfortunately for Jager, that spell will only wear off once it has done what it was supposed to do.

Hibiki's hand started to glow before three hexagons- identical to the ones that had taken out Beth- appeared in front of the mage. "Hu-!" The hexagons exploded in Jager's face, sending him into the sky.

"Two down, five to go." The archive mage smirked before taking off. He was going to win this. A short while later, Hibiki came across four mages fighting; each trying to take down another without getting hit.

He quickly covered himself in the shadow of a building before letting out another focus blast but this one was different. It was stronger, faster and more powerful than the other two.

Three mages cried out in surprise as the blast seemingly came out of nowhere and blew them off their feet. 'Wait… three mages?' Hibiki's eyes widened as he felt a blow from behind that made him stagger forwards. He felt an explosion of pain on his lower back and whipped his head around to see the purple skinned man: Nullpudding.

'That bastard!' Hibiki felt his body disappear and then reappear in another location with the stinging pain still there. He groaned as he pushed himself upright and felt around the wound. A warm wet feel told the mage that if he didn't get the wound patched up, there was a chance he could die of blood loss.

His fingers then touched something protruding from his back and his eyes widened in realisation. 'Nullpudding's spikes!' A flashback of first aid training came to his mind. Never pull out a protruding object from the body, let a professional handle it. "Well… at least I won't have to go to the infirmary; Sofia and Aster can handle this." He smiled lightly and looked at the sky.

That was one of the best timing situations he had ever been in. A flash of light was headed his way at lightning speed. He barely had enough time to surround himself in a force shield before the beam of light hit home. The shining light kept ramming into the shield, making Hibiki incredibly tired. He had already lost a fair amount of blood and he was using his magic to power the shield.

The golden dome flickered and dimmed before it fizzed out completely, leaving a vulnerable mage and a deadly attack. Hibiki closed his eyes and waited for the pain to hit him but… it never did. Upon opening his eyes, he saw the fake town disappear and Domus Flau reappear with six other competitors down for the count. The only conscious ones were him and Rufus of Sabertooth.

"And the winner of Hidden is… Rufus! Ten points to Sabertooth Kabo!" The crowd erupted in cheers as the masked man ate up the applause. "Second place to Raven Tail with eight points! And third place to Blue Pegasus with six points!" Hibiki stopped paying attention to the pumpkin after that and collapsed on his knees. He was loosing too much blood.

"Hibiki! Hang in there!" The four participants of Blue Pegasus appeared in front of the blonde. Aster and Eve helped the injured member on his feet since Sofia was too short to help and Ichiya… was flirting with a redhead.

"Geez Hibiki, how much do you weight?" Aster joked as she swung his arm around her neck for support. Eve was on the blonde's other side, supporting his team mate as well.

"You're so mean Aster!" Hibiki joked back as he and the team trudged towards the Blue Pegasus balcony. The archive mage needed to get that needle out of his body, and fast. Aster looked back at Ichiya flirting. "Sofia, could you get Ichiya?" She said in a sickly sweet voice and smiled. She knew Ichiya was going to… have a very interesting experience.

Sofia nodded and walked up to the "Ace" of Blue Pegasus. She tilted her head upwards, revealing her red, insomniac eyes before jumping up. A small hand clutched around the ginger's ear and pulled downwards, causing immense pain to the womanizer. "Come on Ichiya- sama." The little girl dragged the perfume mage by the ear across the field.

"Noooo! Let me go! Let me be with Er-chan! It hurts! OW!" Ichiya cried and flailed around like a fish out of water. The ear pulling mage turned to look at the redhead. "Sorry about Ichiya; please accept Blue Pegasus's apology." She bowed lightly before continuing her assault on the ginger's ear.

The majority of the competitors stared at the duo. Some were shocked while others were slightly disturbed; a little girl dragging a fully grown man by the ear. There were murmurs from the crowd and the mages. Most of them were questioning who the new members of Blue Pegasus were and what kind of magic they possess.

"… I sense an immense amount of magic energy coming from the newcomers." Rufus murmured to no one in particular. A smile made its way onto his face. "This will be memorized."

When the Blue Pegasus members reached the stands, Aster and Eve set the archive mage on the ground- face down. Aster did a swift examination of the wound and the protruding object. "Tsk, tsk. Why do you always get yourself into messes like this?" She told Sofia to sit on the other side of Hibiki and help her heal their teammate.

"Ready?" Her response was a nod from the shorter girl. Both of them closed their eyes and allowed their magic to flow around the wound. The blood from Hibiki's bloody shirt started rise from the shirt and into the palm of Aster's hand. She then passed on the blood orb to Sofia who placed the blood back in its host.

"Looks like he needs a transfusion." Aster sighed before she bit her finger hard enough to draw blood. The red liquid turned into a flexible line with a point at the tip as she moved to the mage's arm. She quickly stabbed the blood line into one of his veins and closed her eyes.

The veins in her arm started glowing red as her blood was being pumped into Hibiki's body. Luckily, Aster's blood was O negative and compatible with every blood type. It was very useful in situations like this. While Aster was doing a transfusion, Sofia was healing the actual wound. Soon, there was no indication that anything punctured the skin… except for the hole in his shirt.

Right after Sofia was finished with the wound, Aster withdrew the blood needle from Hibiki's wrist. "Phew! Never thought we'd be healing someone of the first day of the games." The taller girl chuckled lightly before helping the archive mage onto his feet. It took a few steps for him to regain his balance but he got it eventually.

"How do you feel?" Sofia inquired softly.

Hibiki stretched and walked around, moving all of his limbs before answering. "I feel great. Thank you." He addressed the last part to both girls.

The sound of the stupid pumpkin's voice reached the ears of Aster. They were announcing the next round! "Come on guys!" She dragged the four of them to the balcony to see who was going next. They arrived just in time to hear the pumpkin head announce the results.

"The first battle will be Fairy Tail V.S Raven Tail! Followed by a tag battle team between Mermaid Heel and Blue Pegasus! Teams choose who goes Kabo!" The pumpkin yelled excitedly and skipped to the referee seat.

The crowd muttered amongst themselves excitedly. Some were placing bets on who would go while others were saying how hot the members of Fairy Tail, Blue Pegasus and Mermaid Heel were.

Soon enough, two players stepped onto the field. Both were female and voluptuous but that was where the similarities ended. One was blonde, had brown eyes and wore the Fairy Tail insignia while the other was a redhead with two pigtail braids connected at the back, red insomniac eyes and wore a very revealing red dress.

"Sofia… any chance you have a relative that looks like an older version of you?" Eve questioned as he looked at the younger redhead. Both Flare and Sofia had the same red, insomniac eyes and the same shade of red, braided hair. The only difference was the style of their hair, their age, clothing and their figures.

The shorter girl sat on the brick wall of the balcony, watching her "Doppelganger" with ringed, red eyes. There were a lot of similarities; so much that if someone put them side by side, they'd almost look like twins. "Last time I checked… I didn't have any family members besides my grandmother." Sofia's brow furrowed in concentration. This could possibly be a lead to her family!

"Remind me to attend whatever event she is attending." The "Mini Flare" said to no one in particular. She was incredibly fascinated by her look alike.

The battle between Lucy and Flare raged on with the blonde gaining the upper hand until the end. Her final attack never hit and Flare took her out with her fire-hair. Everyone was shocked. No cheers come from the audience, only utter silence from shock.

"U-urm, Lucy Heartfilia is down so the winner is Flare Corona! Ten points awarded to Raven Tail !" Pumpkin man shouted uneasily. Even the referee was shocked at the turn of events and he'd been doing this for seven years!

The pumpkin quickly composed himself before announcing the next battle. "Blue Pegasus and Mermaid Heel, please send your competitors to the arena for the double battle!" He watched as Natsu from Fairy Tail jumped from the stands to get the blonde. Even from the arena, the pumpkin could sense tension between the two guilds.

"Well, if it's a double battle, then it's either Aster with Eve, or Sofia." Ichiya nodded at his own sentence before striking a pose.

"I'm not going. I have too much to think about concerning a possible family member." Sofia bluntly stated before turning to the leftover duo. "Looks like you two are doing the double battle."

"Just like the good ol' days, right Eve?" Aster nudged the snow mage playfully before jumping into the arena. She couldn't wait to finally fight and stretch her limbs. Eve quickly followed her trail before nudging her back. "Right Aster." He smiled before turning his attention to the two mages across from them.

"The double battle between Blue Pegasus and Mermaid Heel shall commence! It's Eve Tearm, Aster Sang V.S Arana Web and Risley Law! BEGIN!" The pumpkin rang the gong which signalled the start of a battle.

The opponents were looking at one another as if sizing each other up. Unfortunately for Mermaid Heel, they could only size up Eve since the other member was still wearing the black hoodie that hid her face. A few silent seconds passed before the mages from the all girls guild, attacked.

'The one, who attacks first, loses.' A smirk crawled onto Aster's face as she swiftly dodged the spider lady's web attack. Her black combat boots made skid marks in the dirt as she dodged another attack. The hooded girl glanced at her partner who was… flirting with the enemy. The Trimens and Ichiya always did this, even in the midst of a battle.

"Eve! Focus!" Aster hissed as a weird sticky thing attached itself to her wrist. She quickly looked at her arm before it was tugged forward, dragging her along with it. "Shit!" The young mage cursed as Arana shot out more webs to entangle her in. Aster's mind was racing as she looked at the web around her wrist and the webs coming at her.

She quickly spit on the web rope before snapping her teeth down. The web broke just in time for the hooded girl to dodge the other webs. She spat on her other hand and grabbed the leftover thread off her wrist.

"What?! But how?! Spider webbing is one of the toughest materials in the world!" Arana shouted in disbelief and shock.

"Water is a universal solvent. Human saliva is made up of ninety percent water. Put two and two together and you get a very gross end product." Aster's giggle could be heard through her hoodie. She was very lucky she paid attention in a chemistry lesson about solvents and soluble matter.

From the Fairy Tail stands stood a very confused Natsu. "…What did she just say?" The pink haired man with less of an IQ stat than all the other members, asked.

The raven haired man standing next to him sighed. "Don't you know anything Natsu? Water can dissolve the web and make the web not so sticky." The man- Gray- shook his head at the pinkie's moronic tendencies.

"Oh…" The pink haired man nodded his head and went back to watching the fight. This was one of the rare times when neither he nor Gray, burst out yelling at one another after every comment.

"I want to fight her."

"ACHOO!" Aster sneezed. "Hesh, I hope I'm not coming down with something." She quickly shook the thought out of her head as Arana came at her with more webs but this time, there were over a thousand black widow spiders on the strands of web.

"Ah Shi-" A direct hit of spiders and webbing fell upon her. Aster's entire upper body was encased in a cocoon of spider thread while her lower body was being bitten raw by those poisonous spiders. Her hoodie was ruined and so were her jeans. 'Oh well, better get outta this cocoon first.' Luckily, she was encased mummy style with her arms crossing her chest in an 'X' shape. Aster bit into a finger, hard enough to draw blood and started cutting through the silk.

"Whoa! She's a mummy!" A blonde and very cocky dragon slayer yelled from Sabertooth's stands before laughing at the girl's misfortune.

"..." The other dragon slayer was silent as he watched the hooded girl in the cocoon. The referee came up to the ball of webbing and poked it a few times to see if Aster was still alive. "…I bet Aster will win with ease." Rogue confidently claimed. He crossed his arms and continued to watch the battle.

"No way!" The blonde proclaimed and turned to his black haired friend. "Twenty jewels say, spider lady wins." Sting arrogantly stated with his exceed partner backing him up. "That's right! Sting- kun never looses!"

"… How about changing the money into something else? Loser has to pay for an all you can eat buffet dinner." Rogue stared at Sting to coax him into taking that bet. He raised a hand out to the Holy dragon slayer.

"Deal." The pair shook hands before going back to the games. While Sting was cheering on Arana and saying he'll loose over four hundred jewels if she doesn't win, Rogue was calmly thinking about what buffet he would go to.

Just as the pumpkin was about to call the paramedics, a small red string emerged from the webs. It wiggled around a bit before it fixed on Arana's form. The red thread moved at lightning speed and latched onto the spider lady's wrist. The tip of the red strand burrowed its way into her skin and clawed into a major vein.

A glow emanated from the odd strand as it started drawing blood for Arana. "What's going on!?" The green haired lady desperately tried to yank out the parasitic strand but to no avail. Whenever she touched it, it would just keep drawing more blood than before. She slowly felt herself getting weaker and weaker as the red thing sapped away her blood and magic.

While Arana was getting weaker by the minute, Aster was getting stronger inside the cocoon. The red strand was pumping her opponent's blood into the cocoon, making it swell up like a giant water balloon. The pressure inside the webbing couldn't hold. With a few more drops of blood, a deep rumbling sound echoed through the stadium before the cocoon burst open with a shower of blood.

The audience cringed and gasped at the immense amount of blood covering the floor. One poor sap even vomited on another.

Some members of Mermaid Heel watched in horror as their teammate's blood coated the floor. "W-what is she?" Beth covered her hands over her mouth as she watched the bloodbath. Arana couldn't be defeated so… brutally. Wasn't there a rule about this somewhere?!

"Aw… I got webbing and blood stained into my hoodie." Aster sighed sadly. She wanted so badly to remove that annoying hoodie but remembered the consequences; dealing with Ichiya. She involuntarily shivered before looking at the crumpled green haired woman on the ground. 'I'll just make this quick.' Aster thought before rushing at Arana with her fist in the air. She didn't want to use her magic just yet.

As she rushed past the spider lady, a trail of dust kicked up, blocking the audience's view. When the dust storm finally cleared up, a collective gasp came from the spectators.

"How can I let you defeat me if I don't know who you are?" Arana smirked as she and the audience saw the person that kept her face hidden… until now.

Aster's eyes widened in horror as she realized her face was visible to everyone. She wasn't supposed to reveal her identity until the last day of the GMG's. White, wavy hair reached her mid- breast as crimson reptilian eyes surveyed the crowd. They were all staring motionlessly at her almost as if waiting for her to make a move.

Everything was silent for a few seconds longer before a long sigh was heard. "Well, I wasn't supposed to reveal my identity until the fifth day but, what the heck." The white haired girl quickly bit into one of her fingers and drew a small amount of blood. She quickly bit into her other fingers, each forming a small thread of blood. The strands of red danced in the breeze as Aster moved them like a marionette. "My name is Aster Sang and I am a fourth generation slayer."

The wires quickly came together to create an image of a mighty, Chinese dragon dancing in the blue sky. As soon as she stopped the movement of her blood, the dragon dissipated into a shower of red, Aster dug a finger in-between each of her shoulder blade to break the skin. As crimson liquid poured out of the flesh wound, it distorted many times before shifting into a pair of bloody reptilian wings.

A few drops of blood landed on the earth before a thin stream of blood erupted from the ground. The albino launched herself into the air with her blood wings as guidance. The crowd gasped in awe as the mage stood on the very tip of the blood line with her mighty blood wings stretched out.

The crowd cheered as they watched this amazing fleet. If the battle wasn't over yet, they would have thrown flowers at the white haired girl.

Aster smiled before she lowered herself into a bowing position. "And it's nice to meet you too."

* * *

**The first chapter is the introduction and what draws the reader into reading more. Though the beginning (before the fight) was a bit boring, I think the battle made up for it. What do you think?**

**-Storm Caleum**


	2. Battle, Blood, Performance, Past Story

**Chapter 2**

**Blood, Battle, Performance, Past Story**

The stadium was silent. Everyone stared at the albino girl with wings made of blood. They were awed at her performance. How could a girl, no more than sixteen years of age, create such a spectacle? The unanswered question remained unanswered as the first round of clapping started. More followed and even more followed until the entire stadium was roaring with applause.

"Thank you my darlings! You've been amazing!" Aster faked a northern accent before absorbing the blood back into her body. She landed on her feet and blew a few kisses out to the audience. She nearly forgot she still had a battle to finish- nearly being the key word.

The albino turned to look at her shocked opponent who was standing there with wide eyes. "And I still need to finish the battle. What a pity." She sighed before waving her hand in front of Arana's face. The spider lady snapped out of her trance and turned to glare at the younger girl who had a smile on her face. "How bout we fight in doubles now? Eve and I," She jerked her thumb back at the snow mage who was fighting the gravity mage, neither gaining the upper hand. "Versus you and your teammate?"

Arana thought about the albino's proposition for a while. It could be a trap but then again, there was greater strength in numbers. She quickly glared at Aster before flipping a few times towards Risley. "Come on, if we work as a team, I'm sure we can take them on." They nodded at each other and looked at their opponents standing on the opposite side of the field.

"K-kabo! It seems like the teams have decided to team up and fight together!" The pumpkin announced as he jumped around happily.

"It's been a while since I've fought with you." The snow mage glanced at the slayer with a smile on his child-like face. He looked at their opponents before letting a dazzling smile light up his face. "It would be such a pity to hurt such beautiful women like you." He bowed very gentlemanly like.

Aster sighed and did a face palm. "And this is why I go on missions with Sofia more than you." She sighed again before looking at her dumbfounded opponents. They had a look of 'What the fuck?' on their faces. It wasn't everyday they faced off a really young host and a blood slayer. Heck, they never faced anything like those two crazies.

Risley was the first to speak. "So, are we going to battle or wait around until your friend snaps out of his weird trance?" She pointed a chubby finger at Eve who straightened up considerably. "I was not in a trance… I was just trying to woo you beautiful ladies." The blonde flipped his bangs while sparkles appeared around him. A random spotlight was shone on him.

The girls in the audience had hearts in their eyes at Eve's gesture while the three girls in the arena and the girls in the guild stands, sweat-dropped. Aster was the first to compose herself. "Ah, yes, the battle shall go on. Attack anytime you wish." She sharply poked her partner in the ribs, making him loose the sparkles and gain back his attention. "Focus!" The albino hissed before the mages from mermaid heel started attacking.

All of a sudden, Aster felt incredibly heavy. It felt like a ton of bricks were being dropped on her and increasing at a rapid pace. Both Eve and herself were soon forced onto the ground, barely able to get up. The albino looked up at the two mages standing a good distance away from them. She quickly dug a finger underground and let the blood form a wire.

Risley had her hand held up with a smirk on her face. "No one can break free from gravity. It is the very force that binds us to this world!" Next, it was the spider lady's turn. Arana quickly wrapped both of the fallen mages in spider webbing so only their heads could be seen.

"Seriously, this again!?" The young girl shouted somewhat irately as she tried to free herself from the sticky, white stuff. The blood wire from her finger appeared behind Risley and wiggled around.

Aster smiled as she found a weak point in her opponent's magic. The gravity mage could only change one area of gravity at a time! She inserted the wire into the chubby member's ankle. The mermaid heel woman didn't notice the pinprick of a blood wire entering her system. The wire burrowed into one of her veins and began draining her blood, transferring it to Aster.

A few seconds later, Risley began to feel dizzy. Her head started to spin and her vision became cloudy. She felt sick to her stomach. "W-what is g-going on?" She asked in a shaky voice as her hold on the mages loosened. It allowed the snow and blood mage to escape from the gravity mage.

The Blue Pegasus mages quickly got onto their feet and smiled. "Don't worry, your strength will return eventually." Aster quickly yanked the blood wire back to her as the black haired mage collapsed on the dusty playing-field.

The crowd watched in anticipation as Arana stared at her fallen comrade. Her hands clenched and she looked at the white haired girl. "That was a dirty trick!"

"So was encasing me in a cocoon with little air and black widow spiders gnawing at my legs." Aster bluntly stated. The spider lady just narrowed her eyes at the duo and clasped her hands together.

Everything was silent before the earth started to shake. Everyone had to hold onto something or they'd be tossed to the ground.

"W-w-whoa! W-w-what's going o-o-on!?" The fire dragon slayer exclaimed from the Fairy Tail stands. His eyes widened as the ground in front of Arana split open and eight appendages burst through. The creature hulled the rest of its body out of the cavern and opened its eight white eyes.

"…IT'S A GIANT SPIDER!" The pinkie's eyes bugged out of their sockets. What he saw in front of him was indeed a spider that looked like it was on steroids. Each of its eight hairy legs was at least ten feet long and the black creature's body was bigger than a fully grown man… and fatter too.

"I never knew Arana had this kind of strength." Gray stared at the giant beast before he rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

"Well… this is an interesting turn of events." Eve nervously stated as he looked at the fangs of the steroid spider. They were dripping a black-green liquid which he could only assume as some sort of poison. The snow mage turned a sickly shade of green before barfing in a corner.

Aster was also close to puking up her lunch as she stared into the dead-white eyes of the arachnid. It was just staring at her not blinking, not moving. A chuckle came from behind the spider. "Meet Fang." Arana smiled before petting the beast's head gingerly. The white eyed creature made a deep rumbling sound which could be interoperated as a purr before it leaned closer to the green haired lady.

The slayer girl shivered at the gesture between the two. "Are we gunna fight?" She raised a questioning eyebrow. Arana nodded and shot her arm out. At the same time, the eight legged beast moved at a lightning speed and slammed right into the albino.

Aster had the wind knocked out of her as she flew in the air and crashed into the ground. Bits of skin and blood littered the arena but the albino quickly got on her feet. Her injuries were already beginning to heal. "Eve! You go attack Arana! I'll take on Fang." She stared the spider dead in the eyes as they circled each other like beasts.

With all due respect, they were beasts. It was a giant arachnid versus a blood dragon. The results could vary tremendously. The two sized one another up while Eve and Arana fought in the background.

Aster scanned every inch of the beast, looking for potential weak points. The only two she could see was the legs and right behind the head. She whipped out a blood wire and aimed at the spider's legs. She was hoping to trip the spider.

Unfortunately for her, the beast had anticipated her objective and jumped into the air. A black web shot out of the arachnid's jaws and was headed straight for Aster. She jumped out of the way but something pulled her arm back. The rest of her body soon followed as she lay on the black web.

The girl tried to get up but, she couldn't. The giant beast loomed over her with its jaws dripping with the black- green slime. A drop of the liquid dripped onto her skin and her eyes widened.

A shrill scream echoed through Domus Flau. The spectators covered their ears to drown out the yell of pain. They thought they had it the worst but they were wrong; the dragon slayers had it worse.

All the dragon slayers in the stands covered their ears and collapsed on their knees. Their heighten senses were betraying them right now. It felt like their eardrums were being scratched by thousands of tiny nails.

"Make the fucking noise stop!" Sting cursed from the Sabertooth stands. His partner Rogue was also on his knees, covering his ears.

When the scream died down, the dragon slayers slowly got back onto their feet to watch the games. Aster looked at the arachnid in shock and fear. Her face was reflected in the white eyes of the spider and she saw a very nasty sight. There was a hole where the slime landed. It burned through her flesh and bone before coming out the other side to land on the ground. Even then, it started to corrode the earth.

The wound started to heal but at a slower pace than normal. It was because of the venom in the beast's salvia that caused her body to slow down everything, including the production of blood.

'Wait, body slowing down… that's it!' The albino though excitedly as she shouted to Eve. "LOWER THE TEMPERATURE!" The snow mage nodded with a smile before waves of cold emanated from him. The waves struck everyone in Domus Flau, making them shiver and shake but it affected the arachnid the most.

The great beast's movement had gotten slow and unfocused. Aster saw this as her chance. "Blood Dragon's Roar!" A thick spiral of red and black exited her mouth and hit the arachnid dead on. It flew back a few yards and struggled to get up.

"Eve! Lower the temperature even further!" Aster shouted as she felt the waves of cold freeze the black web she was stuck to. The red eyed girl quickly broke the frozen web into a thousand shimmering black crystals that floated into the air before disintegrating.

She glanced at the giant spider before giving a thumbs up to Eve. Since arachnids are cold blooded, they depend on the environment to regulate their body temperature. When the temperature falls, their bodies slow down and can stop entirely.

"No! Fang!" Arana ran to her fallen friend and inspected him over. "Fang? Fang!? Wake up!"

Aster sighed as she watched the two. She understood the worry that coursed through Arana. After all, she'd been in her position before. "Tell you what," This caught Arana's attention. "I will heal Fang immediately- like right after I finish this sentence- if you let Eve take you out." She stared into the light eyes of the spider mage.

Many thoughts squirmed inside Arana's head but the one that voice over all else was Fang's safety. She'd known Fang ever since he was a hatchling and she felt like a mother to him. A few seconds later, she sighed and stepped up to meet the Blue Pegasus mages. "Alright, you win."

Aster swiftly walked to the fallen beast. As she passed the spider woman, she whispered faintly in her ear. "You did the right thing." It was so low that Arana could barely make out what the slayer was saying.

She bit her finger and inserted the blood wire into the giant arachnid. Aster heard fighting in the background and could only assume that Arana kept her word and Eve took her down. But back to the issue at hand. The wire pulsed as it delivered warm blood to the cold spider. The beast slowly shrunk to the size of a dinner plate before waking up.

It blinked its white eyes curiously before making a mad dash to the fallen Arana. The arachnid quickly climbed on the spider lady's shoulder and hid in her tea green hair.

"K-kabo! I-it seems like Aster and Eve won! Ten points to Blue Pegasus Kabo!" The pumpkin man frantically waved his hands in the air as the Blue Pegasus mages smiled at the audience who were cheering wildly.

"EVE! ASTER! EVE! ASTER! EVE! ASTER!" Two different names were cheered. The crowd was positively thrilled at their win and wanted to see more. They saw a snow mage and fourth generation dragon slayer in action and they were thrilled. However, they were more interested in the dragon slayer. People had heard and witnessed the power of a generation one, two and third slayer but no one had heard of a fourth gen.

The winners waved to the audience before walking back to their guild stands. "Well… that was fun." Aster yawned and stretched. "Though I wanted to do the thousand needles technique on our opponents." Eve lightly thumped her on the head. "Hey, be nice. That is only reserved for enemies."

"But they were the enemies!" She crossed her arms in a childish manor. The slayer just didn't understand.

Before she could ponder it any longer, she felt a small hand poking her leg. She looked down and saw a small girl in a black hoodie. "Sofia, what did you think of our battle?" The slayer asked with a grin on her face.

The shorter girl shrugged. "You weren't supposed to reveal your identity until your fight with the dragon slayers." Aster pouted. "It wasn't my fault… kinda." Now that she thought about it, it was pretty much her fault. She could have sliced that cocoon to smithereens but chose to fill it with blood until it exploded.

Sofia raised a questioning eyebrow but dropped it rapidly. "Whatever, lets grab a bite to eat before our performance. We aren't fighting again today." She looked at the battle schedule. Blue Pegasus wasn't going again today and that gave the guild some time to relax and have some down time.

"Ok, and by the way, are you performing or just controlling the musical elements?" Aster smirked at her short friend who merely shrugged. "Depends on what I want to do."

* * *

Sting was mad, no- he was furious. He had lost a bet to Rogue and he lost four hundred jewels thanks to the shadow dragon's appetite. Everyone in the streets stood clear of the holy dragon slayer as he walked on the cobblestone path. He was literally radiating waves of light and frustration.

While the white dragon slayer grumbled incoherent curses, the shadow dragon slayer was quite pleased. He had gotten his fill of food without spending as much as a single jewel; his exceed also got the royal treatment.

The green cosplaying exceed was happily munching on a fish as the group walked to the main square. Frosch look absolutely delighted as she chewed on the fish. "Fro thinks this is amazing." The exceed smiled up at Rogue who, in turn smiled back. It was one of those rare times where he actually showed some emotion.

Frosch's ears quickly perked up and she looked forward. A crowd was gathered around something and the sound of a familiar tune filled her ears. "Rogue, Fro hears the priestess of the phoenix being played." The exceed ran towards the music filled crowd with Rogue trailing after him.

Sting was still peeved but his curiosity drove him to follow Rogue and Frosch. Lector trailed behind Sting, saying how awesome the holy slayer was. "Watch it! Move! Outta my way!" The blonde pushed and shoved his way to the front while the rest of the group just walked through the crowd with ease.

When they reached the front of the crowd, they saw an amazing spectacle. Two figures stood atop a raised, wooden platform. One was in a front corner; she played what looked like a violin but object was red and waved in the air; it almost looked like it was made of blood. She played a popular tune: the priestess of the phoenix.

The other was at the center of the stage. Red wires sprouted from her fingertips as she twirled around gracefully. Her eyes were closed as her white hair flowed around her face and her blood ribbons danced in the air.

The song and the dance seemed to fit perfectly with each other. It drew the crowd in and many people were throwing jewels into a container in front of the stage. The container itself was at the brim with jewels and some were even spilling out.

As soon as the song hit its last bar, the dancer collapsed on the platform with one arm extended to the night sky. Her blood ribbons flew up and merged together in a single pillar of red.

The blood violinist quickly jumped up and landed on the pillar of blood. Her violin was still perched on her shoulder as she stretched out the final note.

The crowd was silent.

One by one, they started to clap and cheer. The two girls bowed and waved. "Thank you everyone! Proceeds from this show will go to the cities' animal shelter. If you want to see more of our performances, please talk to the lovely blood violinist: Sofia Phire!" The albino blew a kiss before jumping down and grabbing the container of jewels. She went around the crowd and collected a few more hundred jewels.

A few people asked for autographs and Aster gladly complied. As she was autographing, her eyes strayed to where the dragon slayers and exceeds stood. Her eyes widened as she zeroed in on the brown cat. It looked so familiar.

She quickly discarded everything before making a beeline to the slayers. The blood slayer didn't even acknowledge the other slayer and exceed. All her attention was focused on the vest wearing exceed. She kneeled in front of him and stared him straight in the eyes.

"G-Glace? I-is that you?" The girl stared at the scared exceed. Lector didn't know what this person wanted from him. "No! My name is Lector and I'm the partner of the great Sting-kun." The brown cat waved his paw around.

Aster quickly blinked multiple times. Now that she had a closer look, there were many differences between Lector and Glace. "Huh, sorry bout that." The blood mage quickly stood up and glanced at all four of the Sabertooth gang.

"What brings all of you here? Tigers normally don't watch horses… well, unless they were trying to kill them… You're not trying to kill me right?" Aster raised a questioning eyebrow as she watched the four Saber's.

"Why would Frosch kill a horse?" The innocent pink exceed looked up at the mage with large eyes. Her heart almost melted at the sight of the cosplaying cat. "Aww, I didn't mean that." A goofy smile made its way onto her face.

The blonde slayer coughed to get her attention. "Mind telling me why you were staring at Lector and freaking him out?" He said impatiently.

Aster chuckled sadly before staring him straight in the eyes. "Sorry, I mistook him for someone else." This sparked Frosch's attention once more. "Fro wonders who someone else is?"

The girl looked down at the frog cat and smiled sadly. "She was a friend I knew long ago." The Sabertooth mages shut up on the subject. Even they could sense that Aster didn't want to talk about it.

"By the way… are you guys ready for the "Clash of the Dragon Slayers" or so they all it?" Aster smirked. She knew she'd win.

"Of course! Sting will crush everyone because he is the strongest!" Lector pumped his tiny fists into the air. He was extremely confident- to the point of cocky- at his partner's power. Sting had never lost a match and wasn't planning on loosing anytime soon.

Rogue just nodded his head while his exceed happily munched on a fish without a care. Sting on the other hand, was gloating and feeding that heavy ego of his. "Sabertooth will win. Mark my words." A smirk made its way onto his handsome face as he stared down Aster.

The girl just laughed and stared back with much intensity. "So sorry, but it will be Blue Pegasus that takes the win this year." She said with sarcasm laced in her voice. She wasn't sorry at all. It was about time Blue Pegasus rose to the top.

The holy slayer just laughed at her remark. "Ha! Sabertooth has won seven years in a row. What makes you think you can beat us?!" Sting mocked the albino child. Said albino just smirked and stepped up to the third gen dragon slayer. She was so close to him that their noses were almost touching.

"Because Sting, you are a third generation slayer and I am a fourth gen. I am a blood dragon while you are a holy dragon. I can drink the blood of everyone in the audience and gain a tremendous amount of power; what can you do? Eat holy things?" She stared him right in the eye to make her point. "Pft, I don't think so."

Aster backed off a few steps before staring at the blonde's neck. "Besides, you didn't even notice the nick on your neck." She smiled as the white dragon's eyes widened in surprise. A trail of blood was seen on his hand and he looked between the blood and Aster.

"How?" He uttered angrily and somewhat confusedly.

The albino just chuckled and shook her head. "I find that if people are so drawn in to a conversation, they forget about their surroundings." At this point, Rogue stepped up to stop his partner from making a scene.

"I think it's about time you leave." The shadow dragon slayer stated. The subject wasn't up for questioning.

Aster raised her hands in a friendly surrender. "Fine, fine geez. You guys are a bunch of fun killers." She stuck her tongue out at the duo before walking away; the container of money in her hands.

"Oh, and one more thing." She turned back to the slayers. "Actually, two more things. One: during the battle of the dragon slayers, do not let me drink or absorb any of your blood. Fourth generation slayers tend to go a bit crazy at the sight of their element coming from another dragon slayer. You're lucky I'm not the bone dragon slayer." She chuckled as she fondly remembered the memory. "He'd actually gouge out your bones and eat them right in front of you."

Rogue nodded silently before waiting patiently for the next piece of information. "Secondly," The blood slayer fished out a black wallet from her pocket. "I believe this is Sting's." She threw the wallet at the duo before sprinting back to Sofia.

"And don't worry! I only took fifty jewels!" Sting's jaw dropped open. His wallet did feel emptier and there was indeed, fifty jewels missing.

"… THAT LITTLE BRAT!"

Aster heard the white dragon slayer and continued to giggle. "Well Sofia, what do you think?" She gave herself a pat for a well done job. The two girls were walking down the street, back to their guild's inn.

The short red head stared at her friend blankly. "I think you're an idiot for attempting and trying to get away with that stunt." The Flare doppelganger continued to look ahead as they walked. "I also think he will get his revenge."

The albino pouted. "Come on Sof! I'm not an idiot and that idiot blonde won't get revenge. He's too arrogant, cocky and dumb to think of a good revenge plan."

"… What about his partner?"

Aster stopped abruptly and stared ahead. She knew the shadow dragon slayer meant business and will help with a revenge scheme. "Alright, alright, I did not think of that." She sighed and continued their walk. "Now I have to be paranoid for the rest of the games." The slayer said glumly.

"Meh, you deserve it." Aster stared at the girl in shock and disbelief. "Sofiieeee! Why would you say something like that? It's mean." She fake pouted. The shorter girl just snorted and turned to her taller friend.

"And I thought the older one was supposed to be more mature and serious." Sofia deadpanned. The duo had already entered the Blue Pegasus inn and managed to slip into their rooms undetected.

The albino snorted and looked in the full body mirror, observing her face. She had high cheekbones, red almond shaped eyes, pale pink lips and a small nose. Her skin was particularly pale due to the missing melanin pigments. It was one of the downs of being an albino. That and she couldn't go out into the sun. She felt like a real life vampire.

"But you are so serious and mature all the time. You basically took my personality." Aster shrugged before squeezing a few eye drops in her eyes.

"… Do I have to tell you why I am always like this, again?" Sofia raised an eyebrow. It was a rhetorical question and she knew her friend wouldn't put her through the emotional pain of retelling her story.

The dragon slayer shook her head before walking over to sit on Sofia's bed. "…No…" She looked down at her feet, feeling guilty for bringing up the subject.

The younger girl nodded before crawling under the covers. She fell asleep almost instantly but Aster knew it wouldn't last for long. It never did. She would normally have a nightmare and refuse to go back to sleep. Her insomniac eyes told everyone that fact.

The older girl sadly sighed before climbing into her own bed. She quickly shut her eyes before falling into her subconscious.

_A spray of blood coated everything in sight_

'_You let her die! You killed her!'_

_A child weeping over a small grave with drops of blood on the stone. Streaks of red leaked out of the child's eyes._

_A figure looked up at the child. "What's your problem?"_

_Just as the child was about to answer, the figure started morphing into a beast. The mythical creature stared down at the weeping child. "The dragon slayer's fight… I will be free!" _

_The child just cried harder. "No! No! I've lost too much to you! You did this! YOU DID EVERYTHING! BASTARD!" _

_The great beast swiped a mighty talon at the child, spraying more blood on the ground. "One day, you will understand. One day, you will regret the day you took my life."_

* * *

**This chapter was mainly a test chapter with an interesting ending. I really think the performace part in this chapter was magical. In my brain, I saw a festive environment with music and dance conveying a story. That could be just me.**

**-Storm Caleum**


	3. A New Rivalry

**Chapter 3**

**A New Rivalry**

"Aster! ASTER! WAKE UP!" The albino felt two small hands attempting to shake her awake. "Huh? Whaaa?" Aster shot out of her bed, disoriented. Cold sweat dribbled down her forehead, her pupils were dilated and her breath came out in short, rapid pants.

She groaned and wiped away the perspiration using her sleeve. "… I had another nightmare." She whispered and looked at Sofia. In many ways, she considered her as a sister though they weren't related by blood. They've always supported one another no matter what the situation was.

They younger girl sat beside Aster and hugged her. "It's going to be ok. Was it the same dream?" Aster nodded.

"Listen to me. That dream is in the past. Stop thinking back to it and live on in the present." Sofia pulled away and looked her older sisterly figure dead in the eyes. "Your nightmares are usually triggered by something. What happened today?"

Aster sucked in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Sting and Rogue." She didn't meet the other girl's eyes. "While I was collecting more jewels, I saw an exceed that looked so much like Glace; I almost thought it was her. I later found out the exceed's name was Lector and he was Sting's partner."

The albino sucked in another breath of air before continuing. "Rogue also had an exceed but, it was hard to tell if it was a frog or a cat." Sofia raised an eyebrow, telling her to continue.

"Frosch- Rogue's exceed- was dressed in a pink frog costume." The red head nodded slowly. It took a small amount of time for her to digest all this information and spit out her two cents on the matter.

"So Lector was the trigger?" Aster nodded.

Sofia sighed and ran a hand through her partly braided, red locks. She glanced at the full moon shining in through an open window. "Let's go for a walk. It will help you clear your head." The red head yawned before she changed into her day clothes. Aster did the same.

The two girls tiptoed through the guild inn, careful not to wake anyone up. When they made their way outside, they breathed in the sweet smell of night air before beginning their walk.

"By the way, when was the last time you had a meal?" Sofia inquired curiously. Both she and Aster had different balanced diets that would enhance their magic and statistics if eaten right.

To this, Aster just laughed nervously and offered a sheepish smile. "Um… I can't remember?" That was the best sentence she could come up with. Sofia did not look amused.

"…Seriously?" She paused in mid walk to stare at her traveling companion. "You're an idiot." Sofia shook her head before raking her nails across her wrist to draw blood. She offered her bloodied wrist to Aster.

"Drink." It wasn't a question, it was a command. Aster opened her mouth to protest but before she could, she felt the sickly sweet taste of fresh, warm blood on her tongue. Her eyes closed in bliss as she greedily sucked the coppery blood.

After a few minutes, Aster finally pulled away from Sofia's arm. A satisfied look appeared on her face as a trail of blood dribbled down her chin. She quickly licked it up to prevent wasting it and looked at Sofia. "Thanks, I needed that." The albino raised her arm as an offering but, the red head refused.

"I can't. I'm on a strict diet of A positive blood. Anything else will just screw up the diet." The two continued to walk until they reached the town square. They sat down by the giant fountain surrounded by lush green shrubbery and many different flowers.

Aster looked at the horizon line or what she assumed it was. The sky and earth looked almost identical in the dark. "Look, its Sabertooth and Fairy Tail's inns. I wonder… if the guilds hate each other, then why are their inns' a block away from one another?" The slayer pondered. Even she saw the tension between the fairies and tigers.

"Who knows? I bet it's just a coincidence." Sofia shrugged and looked at the small shops. Most of them were closed and the ones that were still open were ready to turn in for the night. There were barely any people around either. No sane person would walk around at two in the morning.

The albino sighed. "I guess you're right." As the girls continued to talk and wonder about trivial things, they didn't notice something watching them from the shadows. The thing had been following them ever since they'd left the inn. As it poked its head out of the shadows to get a better view; the moonlight shone on its left eye, making it appear to glow red.

Aster heard someone faintly talking in the distance, perhaps a few blocks from where she was. It was already three and the duo wanted to head back to get at least another hour of sleep. As they walked, the voices grew louder until they were in plain view.

A red head with the Fairy Tail insignia was talking to a person who had multiple layers of clothing and a weird tribal tattoo over his right eye. The man- or what looked like one- also had spiky blue hair and odd looking staffs protruding from his back.

Both Aster and Sofia could hear what the duo was talking about due to their sensitive ears. It was mostly a bunch of nonsense to them but probably meant something more to the red head and blue haired man. Also, who were Jellal and Mystogan?

When the two mages from Fairy Tail hugged, the Blue Pegasus duo decided to make their appearance known. They stepped out from the shadows and cleared their throats, making the hugging couple snap their heads to them.

"Hi, what are you two doing at," Aster looked at the old clock tower. "At this time of night?" She stared at the duo. Under the moonlight, she could see a faint coating of red on their faces.

Erza quickly pulled away from the covered man and cleared her throat. "I should be asking you two the same thing. Aren't you a bit too young to be walking at night?" The red head glanced at the two with a questioning look.

"No, she is fifteen and I am twelve." Sofia gave her a blank stare while Aster just looked back and forth between the two. She finally decided not to get involved in the stare off and turned to the blue haired man.

The albino sniffed the air. "Why do you smell like two people?" She raised an eyebrow as he stiffened.

He quickly composed himself and tried to look calm. "I borrowed the clothes from my brother." The covered man said coolly. There was a hint of uncertainty in his voice. Aster picked up on the uncertainty and sniffed him again, this time closer.

Aster quickly shook her head and looked him dead in the eyes. "No, the scents are too familiar to even be family members. It's like you but with the tiniest change in scent. It's as if you borrowed a parallel dimension's version of your clothes." She chuckled as she said that last part.

She had no idea how close she was to the truth. She'd almost hit it dead on.

Both the Fairy Tail mages eyes had widened considerably before going back to their regular size. The blue haired man coughed into a closed fist. "It's getting late and we have to head back. It was… nice to meet you." He stated cautiously yet politely. As he and the red head walked away, Aster called out to them.

"By the way, what is your name?"

The covered man stopped mid step, deciding whether or not to tell this girl his identity. A few moments passed before he finally spoke. "It's Jellal… Jellal Fernandes."

"It's nice to finally meet you Jellal. Mystogan has told me much about you."

Sofia cut in before she and Aster walked back to their guild. They left two, very shocked Fairy Tail mages to stand with their mouths gaping open.

As the two girls walked back to their guild, they were laughing like crazy. Well, Aster was laughing while Sofia added the occasional chuckle. "Did you see the looks on their faces?! Priceless!" The dragon slayer giggled while Sofia just smiled.

"Yes I did… and it was hilarious. I can't believe they fell for it." She shook her head and recalled back to the time when both Jellal and Mystogan's names where mentioned-or at least overheard. All she had to do was get the blue haired man's name and say "Mystogan" told her about him while playing it off cockily. In reality, no one told the duo anything and they just twisted the Fairy Tail mage's minds into thinking they knew who Jellal and Mystogan were.

"I know right?! How idiotic can they be?!" Aster laughed for a good long time, until they reached the inn. Their laughter died down once they saw a figure standing in front of the doors, preventing them from entering the hotel.

Half the figure was covered by shadows while the other half was illuminated by the moonlight. The half that was visible was interesting to say the least. The man-or what looked like one- wore ninja like clothing including a face mask that covered his mouth and nose. He wore a black, wrapped shirt tucked into what looked like ninja pants. He even wore traditional ninja like sandals.

One look at the man and both the girls could tell he wasn't a member of their guild. They stared at him and he stared back. Sofia was the one to break the silence. "Who are you and what do you want?" It was supposed to sound threatening. After all, it was the middle of the night and a random stranger was "waiting" for them outside the inn.

The figure said nothing but brought out a letter. He motioned for Aster specifically to come and take the letter. When she didn't step forward, he shook his head and flung the letter at her.

The white envelope sliced through the air. It touched Aster's cheek before imbedding itself into the brick wall behind them. Both the girls whipped their heads to look at the seemingly harmless letter tear through brick wall. Their eyes widened.

Aster felt something warm and wet dribble down her cheek. A trail led to the corner of her mouth and she licked up her own blood. "When, how…what?!" She looked at the letter. Such a small and fragile thing could not possibly cut her.

"Why would you do… that?" The last word trailed out of her mouth as she looked at where the figure stood; no one was there. The only proof that the figure was ever here was the letter and Aster's bloody cheek.

While Aster tried to put the pieces together, Sofia nabbed the letter from the damaged wall and carefully examined it. The envelope had a magic wax seal on it and nothing else. There was no writing, words or even a smudge.

The red head handed the letter to her white haired partner. "Put a drop of your blood on the seal." That was what she thought the ninja person was trying to do when the letter cut Aster's cheek. He could have flung it at a different angle but chose to fling it at that specific angle.

Aster nodded to her friend's request and smeared blood onto the seal. They waited for a few moments before the letter started glowing white. Both the mages had to shield their eyes unless they wanted to go blind. When the light died down, a holographic image appeared.

Both of the figures had a very distinct shadow except one looked like a regular shadow while the other was coloured differently. It was a grey hue instead of black. How odd.

The scene soon became odder as the shadow things started to speak. The grey one literally stuck up its middle finger. "Revenge is sweet. Watch out cuz Karma is gunna bite you in the ass." Right after the grey outline stopped talking, the holographic letter illuminated with a blinding white light before exploding.

Aster and Sofia were thrown onto the ground. The white smoke from the explosion floated care freely in air, waiting for someone to inhale it. The albino inhaled some of this "White smoke" and started having an insane coughing fit.

She pounded on her chest to try and relieve some of the coughing but failed. Her throat was starting to feel like sandpaper and her lungs felt like they were on fire. Another cough into her hand and she saw red. There was a puddle of blood just dripping down from her hand and onto her arm.

"W-what kind of s-sick j-joke is this?" Aster managed to wheeze out. After her blood splashed onto her hand, the coughing fits started to subside.

Sofia quickly supported the coughing girl and led her inside the guild in. She looked at her sisterly figure and back at the white smoke. "I'm not sure but I will find out."

* * *

The next day of the GMG was hectic. Aster couldn't perform due to the mysterious white smoke and was currently resting at the inn. A local doctor checked her out in the morning of the 2nd day of the GMG and ordered a day of bed rest and a special inhaler to detach the white smoke molecules from her lungs.

In the meantime, Sofia was certain Sabertooth was behind this whole charade; more specifically, the twin slayers. It made perfect sense when one thought about it. The letter had two shadow holographs. One was a lot lighter than the other due to the difference in magic. How can shadow cover holiness? It can't. The two have to find middle ground somewhere and that middle ground is grey. That would explain the coloring of the figures.

Also, the distinct outline of one of the shadows looked a lot like the white dragon slayer. It had spiky hair with a puffed up neckline that would indicated some sort of fur on the clothing. Surprisingly, you could also see the dragon slayer's abs through the hologram which Sofia found very odd.

The white smoke was a… interesting case. Sting doesn't know smoke magic and can't simply create a white smoke bomb that screws up whoever inhales its' lung's. He is simply not smart enough to do so. This leads to Rogue who has the brains and probably has connections to someone who can make a smoke bomb.

Now the question is: How to get revenge.

Sofia wanted desperately to get back at Sabertooth for their antics. She knew it wasn't everyone in the guild's fault; only a select few. But right now, her emotions were running high and they were beating her reasoning. All she wanted at the moment was to inflict as much pain on the Sabertooth guild as possible.

Luckily for the red head, Blue Pegasus was fighting Sabertooth today. The opposing guild already sent their fighter into the arena: Rufus Lore. Cheers erupted from the audience. They were cheering like crazy for the black lightning mage.

The members of Blue Pegasus were arguing on who got to fight the memory mage. They were interrupted by the pumpkin man who announced the fighters. "Please welcome Sofia Phire and Rufus Lore! Pegasus vs. Tiger! Let the match begin Kabo!"

The members of Blue Pegasus shouted in outrage while the participants from Sabertooth stood in silence. After a while, the crowd was silent. They were waiting for one of the mages to make a move.

The insomniac looked at the blonde man who looked like he came from the fifteenth century. His attire looked so out of date yet it seemed to fit him. He was just as outdated as his clothes were.

Rufus slowly and dully looked at the red head. He saw no real challenge in fighting a girl less than half his age but he knew not to underestimate her. He felt a powerful but untapped source of magic radiating from her skin. 'Maybe I'll help her tap into this power.' The memory mage thought with a smirk.

He bowed like the gentleman he is and met the girl's gaze. "Rufus Lore, at your service." He straightened up and waited for her to make her move.

Sofia copied the Renaissance man's actions but cut her introduction short. "Sofia Phire." The two stared at each other, analyzing the other's moves and strength. Rufus made the first move. He waved his hand in a circle formation and a magic rune appeared on his palm.

The circle glowed a faint green color before the stadium started to shake. Audience members started to panic as the sky darkened. Black clouds hovered dangerously over Domus Flau; something was inside them.

While spectators stared at the clouds, Rufus placed two fingers on each side of his temple. "Memory Make: Electrode Lightning." The masked man said calmly as bolts of white light rained down from the black clouds. The bolts of energy headed straight for Sofia at a lightning fast speed.

The female simply stared at the blinding bolts as they slashed through air. At the very last moment, she step sided and missed the bolts by only a millimetre. "Is that the best you can do?" She deadpanned. Her red eyes bore into his dark ones.

Rufus smirked before tipping his hat. "Not at all." More lightning bolts rained from the skies above, each narrowly missing the female mage.

The spectators watched in awe as the young mage continued to dodge the bolts. The members of Sabertooth watched with slight annoyance on their faces. "Why aren't you destroying her?!" Sting yelled at the memory mage who just rolled his eyes in annoyance.

Sofia saw a moment of distraction on Rufus's part and took the chance. She inhaled a deep breath of air before her cheeks inflated. "Bellow of the Blood God!" A spiral of black blood and energy exploded from her mouth. The beam of raw power rammed right into the memory wizard or… the memory of the wizard.

"What?" Sofia stared wide eyed at the spot where the 'memory' of Rufus once stood. Before she could compose herself, a blazing pain engulfed her backside. A shrill scream echoed throughout the stadium before dying out. The redhead collapsed on her knees. She reached a hand to feel the burnt skin and flesh of her backside. The burns were worse than 3rd degree.

The god slayer grunted before rising to her feet. Her insomniac eyes were trained on her opponent. No matter what, she had to win this battle. She had to get revenge on Sabertooth for making Aster sick.

A brilliant idea came to her. Sofia tilted her head to the sky and used another 'Bellow of the Blood God.' The black spiral shot up into the air before falling back onto the earth. The black blood covered the battlefield and some of the audience members too.

"What is this supposed to do?" Rufus caught a drop of the dark liquid before burning it to a crisp in his palm. Being a memory mage, he literally had the powers to copy any form of magic he sees fit.

Sofia didn't answer the question but instead bit her finger and allowed her blood to drip onto the dirt ground. In total, there were eight blood drops on the ground.

The red head closed her eyes before muttering an ancient chant. "Temodos nie cariem donashito. Shiva corone…" As she muttered the chant, the blood drops started to rise from the ground. Each of them started to take on a humanoid shape. Soon enough, the eight drops of blood turned into blood copies of the blood mage.

The nine 'Sofia's' opened their eyes in unison. It was eerily creepy as they blinked and looked around in total sync. Rufus slightly cringed as nine pairs of eyes stared directly at him. Even though he had wits made of steel something about those eyes seemed to disturb anyone who gazed upon them.

"Impressive," He looked at the nine Sofia's' with interest. "You are able to create blood clones of yourself… this will be remembered."

"You yourself aren't bad either." The Sofia's' said in unison. "Your power of deception and replicating other powers is… fascinating." Each of the red heads licked their lips. They wanted to savour this moment. "Though I do wonder… how do you taste?"

The blood clones each let out a God Slayer's breath. The tornado of blood was enough to blow people out of their seats. The memory mage however, was not affected. Another memory of him took the attack.

"Memory Make: Gates of Hell." Lava shot out of the ground and burned the blood mages. Nine unison screams of pain echoed through the battle field. When the fire died down, nine crumpled bodies lay on the bloodied ground.

"K-kabo!" The pumpkin head ran to the fallen girls to see if they were still able to battle. "I-it seems like-"

"Not so fast." The pumpkin was shocked as the blood mage and her copies slowly rose from the ground. Their skin was badly burnt and pieces of flesh flaked off their bodies. All of the clones looked like zombies.

"I can still fight." They said in unison with determination and confidence shining in their eyes. The confidence and determination was soon replaced with cockiness and revenge. The redheads smirked. "After all, I know your weakness." They wasted no time in slamming their palms onto the ground. The ground started to shake and the pumpkin man ran back to the stands.

Sofia's eyes bore into Rufus's orbs. _Consider this as revenge._ From the earth, a giant geyser of blood shot straight into the air. It brought all the clones and the real Rufus into the air. The god slayers ran to the shocked memory mage. Within seconds, he was surrounded by nine, vengeful god slayers.

"Bellow of the Blood God!" Nine spiral twisters smashed into the memory mage, pushing him through the geyser of blood. His backside slammed into the ground and took most of the force. The impact pushed the air out of his lungs and snapped a few ribs. One rib broke at a particular angle and punctured a lung.

Rufus's eyes widened as he coughed up blood. He never lost, he never got hurt. All the pain sensors in his body was screaming with rage and pulsating heavily. As he lay on the blood soaked ground flopping like a fish out of water, the copies and the original stood in a circle around him.

"What is it like Rufus? What is it like to feel pain?" The chant echoed through the Sabertooth mage's eardrums. Rufus thought the pain couldn't get worse but it did. The many Sofia's' circled around him like hungry wolves about to kill their prey. They kept on chanting the same words over and over again. With each word they spoke, the pain got worse and worse.

"Your mind may be an impenetrable wall." One of the Sofia's stated as the rest circled him. "But your body is a different matter." A different red head stepped up to replace the other one.

The final god slayer stepped right in front of the weakened man and stared down on him. "You spent so much time developing your mental abilities that you didn't bother to train for physical fitness. You relied too much on your powers and that is what failed you." The rest of Sofia's stood still as they watched the 'Leader' bend down to Rufus's level.

The real Sofia tightly grasped the blonde's chin. She tilted the man's head so their eyes met. "Send a message to Sabertooth. This is what happens when you mess with a member of Blue Pegasus. You will suffer so much that you'll wish you were dead." The mage's eyes widened in fear and he slowly nodded. He didn't want to feel anymore pain.

Sofia nodded before she stared at his pale, fleshy neck. She still had to heal herself from the major burns she'd received. With a flick of her hand, her clones kneeled around the two. They were patiently waiting for an order.

With the majority of Fiore watching, Sofia turned the man's head to the side and plunged her teeth into his neck. Warm, fresh blood danced on her tongue and she couldn't help swallowing the delicious liquid. Her clones copied their maker's actions and latched on to the body of the rapidly weakening wizard.

Their razor sharp teeth penetrated his creamy skin and drank to their hearts content. As they drank, their charred skin and flesh started to repair itself. Muscles and tendons snapped together as a new layer of skin crawled beneath the old one and pushed it off.

The crowd watched in horror as the Sabertooth mage thrashed and screamed under the nine 'Vampires' who greedily drank his life force. The copies were like a group of wolves. They attacked together and brought down their prey in a pack. When it came time to feast upon the weakened man, they waited for their leader to drink first before the rest followed her example.

From the Sabertooth stands, Sting watched the spectacle with a look of shock. He never thought such a small girl would have a tremendous amount of power to be able to bring Rufus to his knees. A string of curses slipped through his mouth as he shouted at the smothered man. "Get your act together! Sabertooth can't loose to anyone!"

As soon as Sofia heard that remark, she detached her mouth from the mage's neck and stared at the arrogant dragon slayer. Her copies did the same. When their eyes locked, Sting felt a shiver work its way down his spine. Those eyes can unnerve anyone.

When she stared into his eyes, she was reminded of what he did to Aster. All the rage, hate and anger boiled deep within her. She wanted to humiliate Sabertooth and destroy it. Scum like them shouldn't be allowed to live.

Sofia broke away from his gaze and turned to her blood clones. A low whisper left her lips and they nodded. She turned her gaze back to Rufus and towered over the half dead man.

While she looked at the fallen mage, her blood clones started melting. One by one, they were reduced to what they once were; blood. This time however, it wasn't drops of blood; it was more like eight buckets of blood was spilt on the playing field. The blood slowly made its way to where the two mages stood. It twisted and turned until it spelt out one word.

At this time, Sofia ripped off the mage's mask and held it up high into the air. The mask wasn't just a symbol of Sabertooth's defeat; it was also a 'parting' gift. The winner would always take something of the loser's and hold it up for the world to see. The god slayer looked up at the Sabertooth stands and mockingly waved the bloodied mask in the air.

The members of the strongest guild were furious but also confused. The blood of clones spelt out a very interesting word. There, on the battle field was 'Revenge' painted with the blood of their comrade.

Whispers erupted from the stands. People didn't understand what was going on. Sabertooth and Blue Pegasus never had a rivalry so why was revenge written on the battlefield? Could it be a recent disagreement that led to this?

"K-kabo! T-the winner of this battle is Sofia Phire! Ten points to Blue Pegasus!" The referee stated uncomfortably. He tried his best not to look at the memory mage's body.

Sofia simply bowed and walked back to her guild stands with Rufus's mask in her grasp. 'That will make Sabertooth think twice about attacking us.' She thought with a smirk and licked the dried up blood from her lips.

* * *

**This chapter... I really like. In order for Sabertooth and Rufus to feel complete humiliation was for Sofia to removed the masked man's mask and show it to the world. Not only can Rufus not do anything about it, everyone is able to see his face and see the weakness in both him and Sabertooth**

**-Storm Caleum**


	4. It all starts

**Chapter 4**

**It all starts**

The sun shone through one of the inn windows and directly into Aster's eyes. The albino groaned before she stuffed her face into one of the many pillows on her bed. All she wanted was sleep. Why couldn't the sun understand that?

Her sensitive ears picked up on footsteps right outside her door. She let out an irritated groan as someone stepped into the room. "Please go awaaaay…" She whined and buried her face deeper into her pillow.

"Really? And I thought you'd be happy to see me." The redhead scoffed as she sat on the bed. She crossed her arms and looked at her sisterly figure with a questioning brow. "Am I that bad of a person?"

Aster abruptly sat up and stared at Sofia. "…I'm tired." Was her excuse as she fell back onto the bed. She swung an arm over her eyes to shield them from the intense sunlight. "I heard a lot of cheering out there. I'm guessing you won?" The dragon slayer smiled. Her eyes were still covered by her arm. She didn't see the faint smile that crossed the god slayer's face.

"Yeah." Sofia walked to the window. The red head gazed outside and saw a battle happening in Domus Flau. Judging from the magic, Laxus from Fairy Tail and someone from Raven Tail must have been in a match. In her mind, she was hoping for Fairy Tail to win. The people in that specific guild were interesting. They each had a personality that was likable unlike the bastards in Sabertooth. Speaking of those savages…

"…I might have killed a Sabertooth mage. I could have also seriously injured and scarred him beyond repair." The god slayer deadpanned. Her eyes remained focused on the smoke and dust from the battle as her 'older sister' freaked out.

"What!? Why would you do that!? Do you know how much trouble you will be in when-" Aster was abruptly cut off when her door slammed open to reveal the other competing members of Blue Pegasus.

"What did you do to Rufus?!" Ichiya half screamed and half yelled at the twelve year old. Sofia just raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "He had it coming." Was all she said before the middle aged, ginger haired man did a face palm.

"Do you not understand the severity of this situation?! If Rufus dies or even if Sabertooth files a lawsuit, the Magic Council will be on our tails and start hunting us!" Ichiya continued to ramble on about nonsense. Nobody in the room seemed to pay attention to him. Aster, Eve and Hibiki were chatting about the upcoming battles while Sofia stared out the window. Ichiya continued to ramble on and on about the Magic Council and how much money Blue Pegasus will be in dept for.

"We already are close to the budget and the only reason why we are even participating in the Grand Magic Games is for the prize money-!"

"-And you will get your precious prize money." Sofia turned and stared straight into his eyes. The ginger's blood ran cold and his muscles contracted. Rarely did the red head loose control of her temper but after twenty minutes of Ichiya's complaining and groaning; she couldn't take it anymore.

The god slayer exhaled a deep breath before she looked out the window once more. Her eyes gazed at nothing in particular. "We are bound by the contract if you haven't forgotten. You have already held up your end of the deal and now it's our turn." The red head brought up the sleeve of her shirt to reveal the Blue Pegasus insignia. Aster had an identical one on her shoulder.

"You have already gotten us into the Grand Magic Games and we will win for Blue Pegasus. You people have helped us and in turn, we will help you." Sofia calmly stated before Hibiki spoke up.

"About the contract… I know the deal we made with you guys but, why did you want to be in the Grand Magic Games so badly?" The archive mage raised an eyebrow at the blood mage's silence.

The red head pushed her lips into a thin line before answering. "You have to ask Aster about that." Three pairs of eyes turned to the slayer lying in bed. They expected an answer from her.

Aster smiled nervously before she rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. "To be completely honest, I have no idea." The three men comically fell onto the floor. Before they could get up, Aster continued to speak as if she was remembering something.

"…Something told me to come here. It kept plaguing my dreams until I stepped onto the soil of Domus Flau. Then, it just became silent like it never existed…" She trailed off and looked at her male teammates. The albino gripped the sheets and chewed on her lip.

"I still don't understand what that 'something' was though I do know one thing…" Everyone besides Sofia leaned in. They were intrigued by the story.

"Something is going to happen on the last day of the GMG; something big. Three pieces are needed for the 'something' to happen: Five extraordinary wizards, spilt blood of the highest order and a sacrifice." Aster stared at her comforter as she said that.

"…I'm still not sure what that means but I think it's some sort of prophecy." She looked up at the three wizards when Sofia walked towards them. The red head sat beside her sister and looked at the mages of Blue Pegasus.

"This is where I come in. As you know, Aster is like a sister to me and we would both go to the ends of the globe to find each other." Sofia calmly said and pulled out two fold up holographic maps. She traced the magic circle on one of the maps and holographic model of the stars appeared before her.

"I've been counting stars ever since I was two. My grandmother was the one who taught me. Every night, we would sit in the garden and watch the stars." The red head gazed at the window and a small smile graced her face from the happy memories.

"She taught me about everything about star gazing and what the shining lights represent." Sofia tapped a few stars on the holo-screen and zoomed in on them. "As you know, this one is Polaris; the North Star." Her lips pressed into a firm line as she tapped more stars on the touch screen.

"Polaris has been Earthland's North Star for over ten thousand years but, the North Star does change over time. About every twenty six thousand years, the star switches. In 3000BC, the North Star was Thuban. In the Roman Era, Ursae Minoris was the star aligned with Earthland's axis." Sofia quickly pulled up two stars side by side.

"The North Star in our era should be Polaris and it has been up until recently. Within the last seven years, Polaris has shifted at a rapid pace that caused a distortion in gravity and a ripple in time." The red head looked up at her team members.

"Now… would anyone like to guess a major, catastrophic event that happened seven years ago? I'll give you a hint: It involved the dragon of destruction and the collapse of a giant, floating island."

Hibiki's eyes widened. He was the first to make the connection. "Tenrou Island." The other two mage's eyes widened. Sofia nodded and continued with her theory.

"Correct. As you all know, Acnologia destroyed that island. On the day the dragon attacked, the North Star had already shifted five degrees. This major shift may have caused a dimension distortion that allowed Acnologia to cross from the dragon world to our world." The god slayer took in a much needed breath of air before she put the first holo-map away.

"The destruction of Tenrou Island was the most catastrophic event that ever happened in the last seven years and seven years before that, all the dragons disappeared. See a pattern?"

Ichiya slowly nodded. "Every seven years, a major tragedy occurs. Seven years before the dragons supposedly disappeared, a devastating drought killed more than one fourth of Fiore's population. Seven years before that, a blizzard set upon Fiore. It lasted seven days and when it was finally over; seventy seven bodies were found frozen in a block of ice, dusted with snow." The ginger said slowly. All the pieces were coming together and forming a clear picture in his mind.

Sofia nodded solemnly. "Each of those events killed many people but they had no link to an astrological event except for the most recent one. When the mighty dragon attacked, the North Star started to rotate. Polaris is supposed to remain the North Star for twenty thousand more years but within three days time, Gamma Cephei will become the new star aligned with Earthland's axis… Guess what is going to happen in three days time?"

"… The end of the Grand Magic Games." The three males of Blue Pegasus gasped in unison. Every seven years, a disaster strikes upon the citizens of Fiore. In three days time, something of mass destruction will descend upon Fiore. It will be the biggest thing yet.

"Not only the Grand Magic Games," The god slayer pulled out the other holographic image that showed all the planets in the solar system. "A rare phenomenon will occur on the final day of the GMG's; an event that is said to be impossible: The alignment of all the planets."

"But that's impossible! The planets could never align! They orbit around the sun at vastly different speeds to ever even come close to aligning!" Hibiki exclaimed. The astrological event never happened in the history of humanity! It was always a theory that predicted a bad omen.

Unfortunately, that isn't true. The planets are going to align in three days time and the worst disaster in recorded history will occur.

Sofia stared at the ground and shook her head. "I'm afraid not. On the last day of the Grand Magic Games, the Northern Star will change and the planets will align. A disaster shall occur and kill hundreds of thousands." The red head closed the curtains and sighed.

Everyone in Aster's room was silent. They all pondered over what the god slayer just said. The biggest catastrophe in history will happen three days from now and their two core members will be in the center of all of it.

"Well… that just took a very depressing turn." Aster sighed and got up from the bed. She stretched out her limbs and inhaled a deep breath of air. "Come on; let's go for a celebratory dinner in honour of Sofia's win. I'm treating."

The Trimens objected to having a lady pay for dinner and insisted they pay while Sofia stood off to the side. She was secretly enjoying the random arguments that occur from a serious conversation. The red head thought about where she wanted to eat.

"Can we go to the Wok of Fame?" It was one of the only places in Magnolia that had a steady supply of consumable blood. Both slayers didn't consume solid foods and only drank blood to fuel their bodies.

The albino smiled at the red head and nodded. "Anywhere you want. It was your victory after all." The rest of the guild members agreed and together, they all walked to the all-you-can-eat buffet.

* * *

"Hmmm… I'll have the AB negative blood."

"Make that two."

The slayer duo ordered their drinks/ main course while the others went to get their food. The waitress quickly got their drinks before going off to serve another table. Aster raised her glass. "A toast to Sofia for defeating Rufus." She smiled and the younger girl lifted her glass to toast.

"And to you for getting over that smoke bomb. Cheers." Their glasses clinked and both females brought the blood to their lips. A disturbing series of yells caught the girls' attention. Aster craned her head to look at the scene. Her eyes widened considerably and she let a soft groan escape her lips. 'Not them again!'

The obnoxious blonde slayer of Sabertooth yelled at the receptionist while the rest of the competing members stood back. They knew Sting would be able to get a table no matter what.

The holy dragon slayer caught a glimpse of the mages of Blue Pegasus and smirked. He leaned onto the receptionist desk and waved a taunting finger at the guild table. "Actually, we are with them. We just arrived a bit late." The waitress standing behind the desk nodded before allowing them to pass.

"Oh shit." Aster groaned as the tigers advanced towards them. The albino tried to shield her face away from their view and made weird hand gestures to the red head. Sofia glared heatedly at the mages who walked up to their table. The arrogant blonde sneered at the two and slammed a palm on the table.

"What do you want?" The red head practically hissed. She wanted nothing to do with any members of Sabertooth for the rest of her life but characters in a fan fiction rarely ever get what they want.

Sting leaned on his arm and smirked. He looked over at Aster who was covering her eyes with her hand. She mumbled something about 'this is not how the dinner should have gone.'

"We were just passing through and decided to join you." He watched the albino shake her head and mumble incoherent things to herself. "Besides," The blonde turned his attention onto Sofia. They glared heatedly at each other; neither backing down. "You made one of our strongest team members go insane. I can't let that slide."

The god slayer narrowed her eyes before speaking in a calm and even tone. "You were the ones who sent us that smoke bomb that made Aster unable to battle today. If anything, you were the ones that started this entire mess; not us." This was a battle of pride now.

She dabbed a napkin at the corners of her mouth before she stood up. Though she was a twelve year old, she had the capabilities and knowledge of a wise man. "If your team member doesn't recover mentally or physically, it is none of my concern. I did not kill him, only toyed with him a bit." Sofia stated smugly before she sipped her blood.

The holy dragon slayer fumed at the twelve year olds' smugness. Just as he was about to open his big mouth to argue even further, his long time partner Rogue stepped into the battle of brains.

"That may be true but who really started everything? I seem to recall the albino stealing Sting's wallet and taking fifty jewels from it." The dragon slayer glanced down at the god slayer who cleared her throat.

"Aster did it as a prank. She always returns the money a day or so later but you didn't wait that long. Instead, you created a smoke bomb disguised as a letter that melted her lungs. Isn't that a form of assault?" The two slayers bickered back and forth using complex words and sounds unheard of to the holy slayer's ears.

While the brunette and red head continued their argument, Sting turned his attention to the albino who was still muttering incoherent things. The blonde quickly made sure no one was looking before he grabbed Aster's arm and dragged her away from the table.

"W-?!" Aster was cut off when her body froze and refused to move. The albino couldn't feel any of her limbs but she could still see. She was getting dragged behind the holy slayer like a ragdoll. Once they were in a more secluded part of the restaurant, Sting spun her around to face him.

"The holy dragon's insignia prevents the body from moving." He smirked and looked at her arm. Aster's gazed followed his to see a glowing white mark where he grabbed her. She wanted to kick him in the balls for doing that but her body didn't respond. It felt like she was trapped in a block of cement and her head was the only body part that could move.

"What do you want?!" She hissed through clenched teeth. The slayer just smirked before he leaned in closer. His breath ghosted over the shell of her ear and all she wanted to do was to head butt him away.

"I want revenge. You were the cause of one of our strongest members going insane. The red head only messed with him because she wanted revenge on us for hurting you. You are the one that made Rufus insane and if Sabertooth doesn't win this year; trust me; you do not want to know the consequences." Aster's eyes widened at the blonde's statement. He felt threatened by the two blood mages and ever since Sofia took out Rufus, the Sabertooth team declined in power and tactics. The memory mage was the one who came up with strategies. He was the one who was never hit but always controlling from the sidelines. He devised every foolproof plan that led Sabertooth to the top. He was the brains of the establishment while the rest were muscle.

"… Rufus was a core member. He designed all the victories that made Sabertooth the number one guild. Now that he has gone off the deep end, you are worried about your guild's reputation and what will become of it." Sting's eyes widened at her surprisingly accurate assumption before they went back to their slanted shape.

"... If there is a way to cure Rufus's insanity; tell me and I won't murder you on the spot." The slayer bared his dragon fangs for her to see. They were incredibly long and sharp for incisors and one would think they belonged to a vampire.

The female slayer raised an eyebrow at the male slayer's threat. "Am I supposed to be threatened by that? Hello? I'm a blood dragon slayer and you saw what happened on the first day when I battled the spider lady and gravity mage from Mermaid Heel." She scoffed and looked at the fuming Sting. He was loosing his temper and fast.

The holy one took a deep breath to prevent himself from loosing it and attacking the blood mage in the public eye. "All I want is to help my comrade. Is that so hard to believe?" The albino thought about his question for a while. Her answer was an interesting one.

"Yes." She bluntly stated. "You never want to help anyone but yourself, you have a huge ego and can't stand to loose to anyone and with Rufus out of the picture, both you and your guild will fall through the ranks. A body of pure muscle is nothing without a brain to control it and that is exactly what Rufus is: the brain of Sabertooth."

That was the last straw. Sting was done playing nice guy to the little brat. The slayer shouted a jumbled array of words at the albino. This caught the attention of many passersby's who were just trying to get some food from the buffet.

Aster saw this as her chance to escape and give the cocky blonde a run for his money. "Help! HELP! This man is trying to kidnap me! He used some weird magic to prevent my body from moving and the mark is still on my hand!" The crowd around them started to murmur before a few people pulled out a digital lacrima and dialled security. At first, Sting tried to convince them he was merely trying to talk to the albino but after a few terrified screams and shrieks from said albino, he quickly ran off before security came in.

The magic neutralizers quickly came in and neutralized the holy dragon's insignia, allowing Aster to move freely. She quickly thanked the security officers and neutralisers before she went back to Blue Pegasus's table.

When the slayer arrived at the table, the first thing she noticed was all the Sabertooth mages were gone. The second was the boys finally came back with huge mountains of food on their plates. For an all-you-can-eat restaurant, this truly was all-you-can-eat. "What happened to the tigers?" She asked to no one in particular as she sat down.

"They left a while ago." Eve answered with his mouth stuffed with food. A piece of deep fried calamari stuck out of his mouth. Aster reached across the table and pulled the piece of seafood out of the blonde's mouth and stuck the uneaten end into her own mouth. She slowly chewed on the calamari before she spit it into her napkin.

"Ew! How can you eat that deep fried oil!?" Aster coughed and grabbed her cup. The albino greedily drank the blood wash the horrible flavour out of her mouth. Who makes that kind of crap?!

"Mmphfglef!" Eve tried to respond with a comeback but the load of food in his mouth was preventing him. The snow mage quickly swallowed the jumble of edible stuff. "It tastes good! How can you drink blood all day?!"

The slayer rolled her red eyes and scoffed. "Not like I have a choice. My body doesn't accept anything else." She playfully threw the deep fried seafood at Eve who swatted it away.

The night continued on like that. Aster and Eve constantly threw food at each other while Hibiki and Ichiya went to flirt with some females they spotted. Sofia sat off to the side, not wanting to partake in the flinging of food.

The red head rested her head on her hand and glanced into her cup of blood. What Rogue said to her was nagging at the back of her mind. She absentmindedly twirled her fingers in circles. What did he mean when-

"Are you ok?" The red head almost jumped out her seat when the other blood mage interrupted her thoughts. "Yeah, just thinking about some stuff." Sofia put a blank look on her face. She didn't want anyone to think something was wrong. Unfortunately for her, Aster saw right through the charade.

The albino whispered something to Eve before she stood up. "Come on; let's go back to the inn. We both need some sleep for tomorrow." She smiled and walked out of the diner with Sofia following her.

When they finally reached their shared room, the girls noticed two letters sitting on the open windowsill. One was a dark ebony color with red lettering while the other was a pale ivory with blue ink. Each girl picked up their respective letter and read the contents. Their eyes widened.

Aster was the first to react. Her hands started to shake as she devilled further into the letter's contents. "Sting… you bastard." She couldn't believe what he wrote. She understood that both she and Sofia humiliated Sabertooth guild but this?

'That cocky bastard!' The dragon slayer glanced down at her arm where the white dragon's insignia had been. She had thought the magic neutralizers got rid of it but in Sting's letter, the mark could only be removed by the one who inflicted it.

True to his letter, the spot where the insignia had been started to glow. Bit by bit, the white light converged at different spots and the mark of the white dragon appeared once more. Suddenly, Aster felt a burning sensation coming from the mark. It quickly spread through her right arm but didn't go any further. It was almost like it was taunting her.

The fifteen year old hissed and clutched her burning arm. Normally, her blood could repel illnesses like this with ease but for some reason, it didn't affect the holy dragon's insignia.

"Aster!" The red head immediately dropped her letter to support the albino. She slowly walked her to the bed and set her down. Sofia bit her lip and looked back at Rogue's letter. She didn't think his 'prediction' about Aster was true. At first it seemed impossible what the dragon slayer wrote about the insignia but as she read the letter, Aster seemed to be falling prey to every single word that was written. The anger at the beginning, the glowing mark and finally, excruciating pain.

Sofia couldn't stand to see her sister in pain and quickly slit her wrist open. She placed the bleeding appendage into the albino's mouth. She knew warm, fresh blood soothed the nerves and made Aster sleepy.

She was right. Within seconds of drinking the fresh blood, Aster was fast asleep. This gave her time to finish the letter without worry. The god slayer scanned both letters with extreme precision. Sting's letter had no more valuable information in it so she discarded it. Rogue's however, had everything she needed to know. The last few sentences were the key.

_If you want to ease your sister's pain once and for all, meet us tomorrow. The information will not come without a price. Be prepared._

_-Rogue_

The red head's small hands closed tightly around the piece of paper. She angrily shoved it into her pocket before she stared at the space where the new North Star will be in three day's time

"I don't know what you've planned but it better not affect the events on the last day. Mark my words Sabertooth, a disaster will rain upon mankind. The pole star will shift, the planets will align. A sacrifice has to be made. Do not get in my way."

* * *

**Well... a lot of tension is building between the Pegasus and Tigers. What will happen when the planets align? What is spilt blood of the highest order? And what or who is the sacrifice? **

**In this chapter, I tried to make it a bit more on Aster instead of Sofia but it turned out to be relatively even. Sofia talks and explains a lot more and is very connected with the stars. If you look closely, you can see that she is the brains and Aster is the brawns. It wasn't my initial intention of making that happen; it just kinda did.**

**Storm Caleum**


	5. Pink, Blue and Red

**Chapter 5**

**Pink, Blue and Red**

"Sofia… do we have to meet Sting and Rogue? The mark isn't that bad." That was a lie. Whenever the albino said something about the slayers or anything relating to the slayers and their guild, the mark would flare up and consume her arm in a white light. Afterwards, she felt like her right arm was on fire.

The god slayer turned around and stared the dragon slayer dead in the eyes. "Yes, and that is final. Neither of us has to battle today and the Saber bastards don't either." She quickly checked both letters from the night before to find a location. "I think this is their way of getting revenge."

"By marking me?" Aster raised a doubtful eyebrow. The white insignia on her arm pulsated.

"Yes. Believe it or not, the marking is very similar to me removing Rufus's mask." The red head took a roll of bandages out of the cabinet and sat down next to Aster. She wrapped up the mark on the albino's arm. "Marking is usually done to symbolize belonging. People write their names on test papers to make sure it belongs to them. Ranchers brand their cattle to make sure no one else takes them. Humans are even branded by other humans." Sofia tied off the bandages before looking at her handiwork.

"When Sting placed the holy dragon's insignia upon your arm, it was his way of marking you. He is basically tattooed a sign into your arm that says 'Look at me! I'm the holy dragon slayer's bitch.'" Aster's horrified eyes bored into the god slayer's skull. All she wanted to do was to get rid of that stupid painful mark.

"Now, that relates to me taking off Rufus's mask becau-"

"C-can we just go and meet the slayers so they can remove the mark?" The albino shuddered and nervously chewed on her lip. Based on what her sister said, she knew she had to get rid of the insignia as soon as possible.

Sofia nodded firmly and the duo quickly walked to the Sabertooth hotel. The Tigers' hotel was probably the most elaborate, elegant and biggest temporary living quarters the girls had ever seen.

"Wow." Aster awed until Sofia roughly elbowed her. The younger girl gave the albino a glare before speaking. "We aren't here to admire their hotel. We are here for that." She pointed to the holy dragon's insignia on her sister's arm. She raised a questioning eyebrow. "Or would you rather prance around with that slayer's-"

"Well, well… look what we have here." The cocky voice of the holy dragon invaded their eardrums. The girls spun around to see the twin dragons of Sabertooth smirking at them well, only the holy dragon was smirking. The shadow dragon just remained impartial.

Sting's eyes wandered down to the albino's arm. He raised one of his eyebrows and his smirk grew wider. "Really? Are you so ashamed of the mark that you covered it up? Tsk tsk. I expected so much more from you." Aster knew this was an attempt to agitate her into attacking. If that was his plan, she wouldn't fall for it. She took in a deep breath and cleared her mind.

"Screw off. The only reason we are here is to remove the mark. What 'info' did you want in exchange?" It was Rogue's turn to answer the albino's question. The red eyed man opened the doors to the Saber hotel and walked in. He was followed by Sting who waved for the girls to come in; they did so with caution.

When the group of four entered the hotel, several pairs of eyes turned to stare at them. The mages of Sabertooth glared at Sofia. They were well aware of what she did to Rufus. The stares didn't bother the red head but it did unnerve Aster. She hated being the center of bad attention. The albino walked closely behind the dragon slayers hoping that they could somehow shield her from the scrutinizing gazes.

The slayer duo continued to walk through the hotel and into an elevator. They dragged the female slayers into the enclosed space before the doors closed. "Let go! I don't want another mark!" Aster shouted in frustration. She broke out of the white dragon's hold and shimmied to the opposite side of the elevator.

"What's wrong? Scared?" Sting taunted and leaned against the wall with crossed arms. The elevator doors quickly opened and the four slayers walked down a darkened hallway. The Saber's were in front while the Pegasus girls trailed behind.

Suddenly, a shrill scream echoed through the hallway followed by a mumble of words. Sting and Rogue immediately raced down the hall and burst into a room. A lot of screaming, cursing and yelling came from that room as the girls raced towards it. What they saw shocked them.

A man with flowing blonde hair was being held down. He was screaming about nonsense and his eyes glistened with madness. His body kept on twitching and the two dragon slayers had a difficult time pinning him down.

Through screams, punches and kicks from the man, Sting could make out a few breathless words. "This is what you've done to Rufus." His cold eyes landed on Sofia. He glared at her in spite and rage while holding his 'insane' teammate down.

Sofia rushed to their side, leaving the albino standing at the doorway in shock. She quickly slit open a major artery with her fingernails and pressed her hand against the bleeding wound. A faint glow of red danced on the memory mage's skin before he stopped moving. His eyes slowly drooped shut.

The room was silent. "… What did you do to him?!" The white dragon slayer looked at his dead comrade. Even the shadow dragon had a flicker of sorrow on his face before that turned into anger directed at Sofia. "It wasn't enough you made him insane but now you killed him?" Rogue growled through clenched teeth.

"Don't worry, he's not dead." The albino chirped into the conversation before she walked to Rufus's bed. She looked upon the memory mage's peaceful face before turning to the Saber's. "Sofia lowered the concentration of oxygen in your comrade's blood, making the entire body decrease its activity and going into a deep sleep, though how she did this in such a short amount of time is a real mystery." She smiled at her younger sister.

The red head nodded and looked at the slayers. "Now, let's talk about this 'exchange of information.' We want to get rid of the insignia you inflicted upon Aster." She motioned for Aster to take off the bandages and reveal the glowing mark.

Sting ran a hand through his spiky blonde hair and leaned against the wall. "We want to know how to cure Rufus of his insanity." He looked at his sleeping comrade and back at Sofia. "Since you're the one who inflicted the trauma, you will heal him. In return, I'll erase your precious sister's mark."

The red head nodded before she sat on the memory mage's bed. She ran a few blood tests on him before she gently bit into his neck. All the memories, thoughts and trauma he went through came crashing down onto her and she quickly pulled away.

"I really did a number on him." Sofia wiped her mouth clean of blood and stared at the sleeping blonde. There was one idea that floated around in her mind. "… You can erase his memory though you need to find a high level mage to do so." She walked over to where Aster stood. "However, there is a large possibility that his memory could be completely wiped out. He won't know who you are, where he is or anything about his magic. He'll be starting out from scratch." Sofia stated and looked at the dragons of Sabertooth.

Sting was the one who reacted first. His arms shook with rage and he grabbed the god slayer by the front of her shirt and slammed her into a wall. Her body left a dent and she winced. The dragon slayer's eyes flared up in anger. "We lost the strategist on our team because of you and you have the nerve to suggest to erase his memory?!" He was panting in rage but didn't let up his hold. His temper and pent up frustration was getting the best of him.

"If we erase his memory, he will be nothing more than a useless mage starting out from scratch. He'll be as weak as the pathetic Fairies." Rogue said with a tremble of anger in his voice. "He is better off as he is now. He can still use his powers in this insane state."

Sting snarled at the god slayer. "The deal's off. Her mark will stay how it is and I will make sure she suffers from it." He threw the red head to the other side of the room and she made another dent in the wall. His eyes shone with murderous rage. "Leave now. Next time I see you, watch your back. The next time I see you, I will fucking murder you."

The blood dragon slayer glared heatedly at the holy slayer before her arm turned into a bloody weapon. "Why you little-!"

"Stop." Sofia held out an arm and blocked the albino's path. "If we attack now, they will beat us. Think about it, the entire guild of Sabertooth is living in this hotel vs. the two of us." She slowly stood up from her position and nudged Aster out the door. Her gaze trained onto the Saber dragons and three words escaped from her chapped and split lips: You will pay.

The mages quickly walked out of the guild hotel without much of a hassle though they still received nasty glares from almost all the guild members. "I can't believe he would go back on a deal like that." Aster sighed sadly and looked at her arm. The white dragon insignia was still there and it didn't look like it would come off anytime soon.

"It's Sabertooth, what did you expect?" Sofia lightly scoffed. She was peeved to say the least. First, the Sabers blackmail Aster and forced the Pegasus to have an exchange of information. Then, when she gave them the information they wanted, they flipped out and threatened to kill her. What was up with that guild?

"… It could've been worse. They could have actually killed you." The albino continued to walk down the cobblestone road but didn't pay much attention to her surroundings. Many people were bustling around, doing their daily routines. The children were running around and playing dress up or tag while the adults talked with street vendors.

Suddenly, something crashed into Aster and broke her train of thought. Both she and the thing smashed onto the ground. "Owww…" She groaned in pain and gingerly rubbed the side of her head.

"Sorry bout that. I didn't see you there... a dragon slayer mark?" Aster's eyes widened and she looked up at the figure. A man dressed in the Fairy Tail's competing uniform with pink hair kneeled in front of her, regarding her curiously. She quickly scrambled to her feet and covered most of the holy dragon's insignia with her other hand.

"…Yeaaaa…. Any chance you know how to remove it? After all, you are a dragon slayer yourself Natsu of Fairy Tail." The members of Fairy Tail could be trusted unlike the Sabers. Aster allowed the fire mage to examine the mark before he came to a conclusion.

"To be honest… Igneel never told me much about dragon marks." The pinkie sheepishly said and rubbed the back of his neck. Suddenly, a great idea came to him. "I know! I'll take you to Porlyusica. She's the scary witch doctor but she knows what she's doing… I think." Natsu exclaimed with the trademark smile on his face before he dragged Aster away. Sofia followed closely behind. From the civilians view, it looked like a crazy pink haired man was kidnapping an albino with a red head tailing behind.

* * *

"So… do you think you can remove the mark?" A nervous Aster asked the elderly woman. All she got in response was a glare and a few mumbled words before Porlyusica walked to the other side of the small house and prepared something.

The albino learned a few things about this lady well, just one thing: SHE WAS INSANE! And not the good kind of insane. Supposedly, Porlyusica hated humans yet she was the medicine woman of Fairy Tail. Whenever too many people were in her house, she'd bash them repeatedly on the head with an old hay broom stick until they left or passed out. Personally, it was something Aster never wanted to experience.

Aster watched curiously as the elderly woman handed her a glass of a pale red liquid. "Drink. It's a numbing agent." She didn't understand why a numbing agent was required but she didn't question it. She downed the whole glass, only stopping occasionally to gag at the horrible taste.

"What was… iiiinnn... thhhaaat?" Her speech became slurred and her vision went fuzzy. The liquid was extremely fast acting and within seconds, she couldn't feel any part of her body. Heck, she couldn't even keep her eyes open!

"How long will she be out for?" Sofia asked the pink haired woman who just finished a short conversation with the fire dragon slayer. Said slayer quickly walked to the red head with a smile on his peachy face. "Don't worry; I'm just going to burn the mark off."

He grinned happily before he placed his hands on Aster's arm.

Within seconds, the smell of burn flesh filled the room. The red head quickly opened a window before inhaling the fresh outside air for dear life. She hated the stench of burnt anything. As she waved the smoke out of the house, Porlyuscia came to stand a few meters from her. The pink haired woman didn't like the smell either.

"Your friend will be fine in a few hours. Her healing pace has sped up and she will be able to battle in tomorrow's games." Porlyuscia stated. She regarded the red head with a steel gaze. Red eyes met crimson as the two females stared at each other, not blinking or moving.

It was Sofia who broke eye contact. "… Have you noticed something strange about the stars recently?" The pink elder looked mildly surprised but played dumb. She didn't know why such a young girl would notice the changes in the star patterns, not to mention the rapid shift of the North Star.

'Astrology will always confuse and amaze mankind.' She thought with an inner smile before she answered the red head's question with a question of her own. "What do you mean?" This earned her a strange look from the god slayer.

"… Just- nothing." Sofia gritted her teeth in frustration. Surely a woman of Porlyuscia's age has noticed some sort of change in the night sky! Heck, she was the Edolas equivalent of the sky dragon! Doesn't that count for anything?

The girl quickly snapped out of her thoughts as she felt a tap on her shoulder. The fire dragon slayer looked at her with a grin plastered on his face. "Soooo… your friend's gunna be out for a while. Let's go eat something!" The pink hair mage dragged the god slayer out of the old house faster than possible for even a dragon slayer.

A small blue talking cat flew from out of nowhere and landed on Natsu's head. The odd feline kept on complaining about hunger and some kid who tried to take him home. The blood mage watched the two joke around before one thought wormed its way into her sophisticated brain.

'This was going to be a long day.'

Indeed it was. The trio of semi friends- two friends and a person who was dragged around by the two friends- went almost everywhere, literally. Sofia was dragged around like a rag doll while Natsu and the crazy flying cat went to a food court, restaurant, buffet and oddly enough, a lingerie store.

The blood mage still didn't understand why a male dragon slayer would go into a ladies underwear store and return fifteen minutes later with a bag in his hand and a sinister smile on his normally goofy face.

'What I don't know won't hurt me.' Sofia kept chanting in her head as she was dragged again to god knows where. The blue feline apparently said the torture would be over soon and she could return to see if Aster was awake yet. Upon hearing this, the red head's tolerance level rose and she made sure to not strangle the fire dragon slayer out of sheer frustration at his antics, at least… not before he took her back to see the albino.

But the idiot was testing her patience. He kept on poking her cheek. "Sofiaaaaaaaa! I'm bored!" He was like the annoying kid brother she never had and never wished to have. She quickly slapped his hand away, stood up and gave him a glare that even Satan would've been proud of.

"Listen closely. I don't care if you are bored but I swear to Lucifer, if you so much as think about poking my cheek again, I will personally chop off your balls with a rusty spoon, deep fry them in hot oil and put them in a plate in front of you. You will eat your own testicles by choice." The red head growled in a low and dangerous tone. She watched shivers run up and down the pinkie's spine and quickly walked away from the cat and mage.

Just as she was almost in the clear, she felt a calloused hand gently gripping onto her shoulder. "Look, I'm sorry if I did anything to offend, annoy or bother you. It's just that… you seem so sad, bored and depressed all the time and I thought you needed some cheering up." The fire mage grinned as the blood mage processed his words.

"And, I don't like seeing any of my friends sad so that's why I annoyed you; to get any sort of reaction, even if it is one of anger." After hearing those words, Sofia was left with an odd feeling in her chest: Guilt. She lashed out at him even though he was just trying to cheer her up but then again, he did drag her around the city without her consent and went into a lingerie store. Speaking of which…

The god slayer turned to the dragon slayer, regarding him with questioning eyes. "Why did you go into a lingerie shop and come out with a shopping bag?" The pyromaniac took one quick glance around to make sure no one was listening before he whispered something in her ear. Whatever he said made the twelve year olds' ears and face turn red. She looked like she had just finished a marathon.

"…What the hell?! You don't say that to twelve year olds you old pervert!" A random passerby's whispered distasteful things to her friends while giving Natsu a glare. Others even went as far as to calling the police via lacrima.

"Oh crap! They are calling the police! Let's get outta here!" For once, Sofia didn't have any objections and the two ran like the wind, leaving a trail of dust behind and an irritated Happy. "Wait up!" The flying feline flew into the dust trail to join up with the duo.

_Porlyuscia's Home_

The elderly pink haired woman gazed out the window and watched the sun set below the horizon. She sighed before she let a barely noticeable smile mould her lips upwards. No more humans were in or even around her home now but, the peace was short lived.

As the sun dipped below the land, the stars and moon shone brightly in replacement. The elder's eyes locked onto a spot in the night sky. Nothing but a vast expanse of ultramarine was seen. That spot was where Polairis should be and where Gamma Cephei will be in two days time.

Porlyuscia quickly drew the curtains closed and sat on an old rocking chair in total darkness. Her thoughts ran wild. "Every seven years, a catastrophic event happens. Acnologia, the drought and the blizzard, they were all small compared to what will happen on the final day of the Grand Magic Games… and that dragon slayer." Her eyes strayed to where Aster had slept merely hours ago. "She's different than the others. She might be a 4th generation slayer but no one has investigated her background or even who her dragon is. She is an albino surrounded in a foggy barrier that prevents outsiders and even close comrades from entering."

"…Whatever happens on the fifth day will determine the triumph or fall of humankind. Something will happen on the final day. Five extraordinary wizards, spilt blood of the highest order and a sacrifice…"

* * *

**Shorter chapter than usual and this one is more of a filler. It shows the relationship between the two female slayers and the rest of the Fairy Tail cast. The next chapter will be day 4 of the GMG. It will have an epic 3 way fight between certain guilds. **


	6. God Slayers

**Chapter 6**

**God Slayers**

"What a beautiful day for a fight." Aster smiled and stretched her arms above her head. The hot summer sun beat down on the stadium. Everyone was wearing hats, fanning themselves or drinking cold drinks- everyone in the audience at least. For some reason, all the mages remained in their normal attire even if it was all black, didn't allow air circulation and was slowly giving them a heat stroke from the inside out.

Unlike the others, Sofia and Aster chose to wear T-shirts, shorts and a pair of running shoes. They didn't want to burn up in the heat like everyone else. Even the fire mage had trouble keeping cool in this unnatural temperature.

The short albino turned to the even shorter red head. "At least I don't have to battle today. I would have been a piece of burnt bacon by now." She peered over the balcony edge and looked at the ground below. A random bird flew overhead and pooped. The feces traveled in liquid form out of the bird and evaporated into a solid before it even hit the ground.

Sofia scoffed. "I have to fight in this heat." She was very glad she didn't burn or tan easily or it would have been curtains for her.

Everyone quieted as the pumpkin man announced the battle. "The battle of the 4th day shall be a very interesting one. It is something we have never tried before so bear with us." He turned to look at Sabertooth, Blue Pegasus and Lamia Scale specifically. "Today's match will be a three way battle between all the god slayers in the participating guilds. Please welcome Sofia Phire from Blue Pegasus, Orga Nanagear fighting for Sabertooth and Sheila Blendy battling for Lamia Scale!"

The audience cheered like there was no tomorrow. Never before in the history of the Grand Magic Games have there been a three way battle between god slayers. Normally, the judges would never organize an event like that since the collateral damages were far too great but, what changed this year?

The pumpkin referee waved a hand to silence the crowd before continuing. "Because this is a battle of the god slayers, we have taken the liberty to refurnish the battlefield of Domus Flau this year. The floor can now automatically repair itself after each battle. Furthermore…"

The youngest girl from Blue Pegasus was in deep thought. She tuned out the rest of the pumpkin's gibber gabber to focus on more important things. Firstly, what did they mean when they refurnished Domus Flau this year specifically? Every other year, it's the same flooring but why did they change it this year? Could the match ups for the games already been decided that long ago? And if it was, what are they planning? They must know something big is going on but wha-"

"Hey Sof, it's time for your match. Good luck." Hibiki snapped the red head out of her thoughts and brought her back to reality. She nodded slowly before she jumped off the guild balcony and landed on the dusty battlefield. Her hands lightly grazed the ground and she immediately pulled them back and hissed. The ground shouldn't have been that hot.

Without any warning, the pumpkin headed man ran off the field and the starting gong rang. The battle was on its way. Each contestant observed the other two. One did it mildly, one didn't do it all and one did it to its fullest extent. Guess who the third was.

The burly man casted a hate glare at the red head. "So you are the bastard that caused Rufus's insanity." He sneered and charged up a sizzling ball of black with the faintest tint of yellow. "Well… this is payback!" The charged orb sailed through the air at lightning speed, not giving the twelve year old a chance to react. It hit her square in the chest and shocked her to the bone.

'Shit! Electricity!' Sofia gasped as the electrical charges went through her body and zapped every living cell. It felt like she was just struck by lightning. It was even worse since her element was blood. The same liquid that keeps almost every living thing alive is now slowly electrocuting her. Ironic, is it not?

Blood conducts electricity better than water because it is made up of eighty three percent water, contains iron, electrolytes and sodium. The last three factors give the life liquid an extra edge in exchanging electrolytes with an outside force therefore, making it more susceptible to anything that has both a positive and a negative charge. Electricity is one of those forces.

She groaned, her bones creaked in protest as she fell onto the hot battlefield. The red head jumped up and away from the boiling ground a second too late. The effect from the electric attack caused her to move slower than usual and as a result, her hands and knees got burned by the hot ground.

Before she had time to recover, the wind suddenly picked up and a giant swirl of black feathers few directly towards her. She was incredibly lucky to avoid the brunt of the attack and took medium amounts of damage on her right side. She lifted to head up to see the apologizing face of Sheila and the sneering face of Orga. She pushed herself up to stand straight and looked at the two god slayers with calculating eyes. Suddenly, a smile danced onto her face.

The lightning and sky slayer looked at each other in confusion. Why was the blood slayer laughing? She took a lot of damage yet inflicted none upon them. The feeling of unease set into the pit of their stomachs as the unfamiliar, freakishly high pitched voice of Sofia rang through their ears.

"Two against one? That doesn't seem very fair." She sliced her index finger on an incisor and let the blood seep from the wound drip on the ground. The life liquid droplets slowly rose from the ground and metamorphosed into two identical copies of Sofia. The clones and the real red head, circled each other in a random pattern to confuse their opponents on who was the real Sofia.

All of a sudden, they stopped in their tracks. The one in the center nodded and raced to throw a well aimed kick at Orga while the other two viciously attacked Sheila. The red head used her small size to her advantage. Since the lightning god slayer was a big burly person, he would move a bit slower than the average person. This was what she thought until he dodged her kick with incredible speed.

As her eyes widened in a fraction of a second, the green haired slayer sent a punch to her face. The red head snapped her head to the side, almost breaking her own neck but narrowly avoided the attack. All she got was a knuckle grazing her cheekbone.

When Orga pulled back from his punch, the red headed girl saw an opening right at his torso. He kept his arms too high up and although it protected his face, it didn't give him much defence in his midsection.

The girl smirked at his mistake before she brought her leg up to kick right at his weak spot. Time seemed to slow down right before she was about to make contact. A gleam of early triumph and success shone in her crimson pupils but was squished like a bug when a firm hand clamped down on her ankle. It clenched tighter and tighter around her limb until she could feel the tearing of muscle and the cracking of bone.

This time, Orga was the one smirking and she was the one who looked at him in horror. He released her crushed ankle with a sneer and watched her hobble back. The slayer was incredibly pleased with his work.

Orga slowly advanced on the blood mage who was struggling to get away from him. He was taking his sweet time and enjoying the pitiful state she was in. 'Revenge was never sweeter.' The burly man stood in front of the trembling mage. He wasn't sure if the twelve year old would burst into tears but frankly, he didn't care.

"Now… which one of your limbs shall I crush next?" The man sneered. He took his time in picking another limb. After seconds of consideration, he chose her right wrist.

A sickening cracking noise echoed through Domas Flau as the green haired man crushed the red head's wrist. All the twelve year old felt was pain and yet, she couldn't utter a single scream; she knew the reason why and needed just a bit more time.

"What's wrong? Can't scream?" The Saber smirked and slowly pressed his foot onto her shin, gradually putting more pressure on it. "Don't worry; I'll make you cry out in mercy." With a final bit of pressure, her leg snapped like a twig under the foot of a giant. The crushed bone cut through flesh and blood seeped from her mangled leg.

Members of the audience gasped and whispered to one another in shock.

"I've never knew the GMGs were so brutal."

"Poor girl."

The audience only mumbled a few comments before they heard someone actually cheering for the lighting mage to kill the blood mage. It came from the Sabertooth stands.

"Kill her! Remember what she did to Rufus! Remember what she did to tarnish the Sabertooth name!" The white dragon slayer shouted. All he wanted was to see Sofia suffer. He wanted to see her broken and alone just like Rufus. He wanted cold, hard revenge.

"You're doing this for Sabertooth! Finish her already!" Sting yelled out commands. He saw the two other Sofia's take down the sky god slayer and advance on the fighting mages. "The other one is already out! Defeat that little bitch and you win! Kill her!" He leaned over the balcony and hollered as loud as he possibly could.

Orga slowly smirked as the words of Sting fuelled his desire to kill even more. He wanted her to die with a BAM. He clapped his hands together and black lightning circled them before it formed a concentrated ball of pure electricity the size of an extremely large beach ball. The green haired man stood over the small red head with the ball of pure power in his hand.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. If only you'd never messed with Sabertooth then maybe I wouldn't have to kill you." The man sighed falsely before he threw the electric ball directly at the twelve year old.

As the ball of certain death traveled closer and closer to the girl, a small smirk graced her lips. She mouthed one word 'Sike' before she exploded in a shower of blood. All that was left of the red head was a bloody imprint in the shape of a human.

The Saber stared at the puddle of blood with a smirk of triumph on his face. He didn't pay attention to what the red head mouthed beforehand. All he knew was he had won and had finally restored Sabertooth's honour. Orga pumped a fist into the air. "Sabertooth is the b-EEEEEAAAHHH!" A strangled noise escaped from the man's throat as he clutched his privates and doubled over in pain. Two figures loomed over him. Both had blood red insomniac eyes and red hair in twin braids draped over their shoulders. They shook their head in unison and the one on the right spoke while the other kept silent.

"Honestly, how did he not figure out he was fighting a clone?" She rolled her eyes and stared down at the pitiful looking Saber. A tiny voice in her head told it that maybe it wasn't too smart to kick Orga in the balls, no matter how cruel of a person he may be. She disregarded that voice in an instant and focused on the task at hand, winning and beating the Sabers into the ground.

Sofia gave the burly man another kick, this time in the ribs. She heard one of his ribs crack and him gasping in pain but she could've care less. The red head saw how he treated one of her clones; he tortured her and slowly broke every bone in her body. That was how badly he wanted revenge. She would not allow that to happen, she would've killed him before he had the chance to kill her.

The blood mage looked back at her clone and the two shared a silent conversation. The clone walked over to Sheila's unconscious body and inserted a blood tube into one of her veins. The blood of a god slayer would be useful for later.

Sofia watched her clone work but when another groan escaped from the man at her feet, she turned her attention to him. "Now… which bone do I want to break next?" The red head repeated the slayer's own words. She looked over Orga's well built body before their eyes locked. All that was seen in his white irises were terror and pain. He thought he was unbeatable; never able to lose or be humiliated. Now look at him, just a trembling mass of flesh and bones.

"Hmm… I can't crush your skull since that would take the fun out of everything…" Her eyes stopped at his shoulder joint and a creepy grin stretched across her face. "OOOO, how about I disconnect your shoulder? Doesn't that sound fun?"

His eyes widened dramatically and he tried to scramble away as the blood mage kneeled next to his head, gripping his shoulder. Her grip was ridiculously strong for a girl her age. Sofia's hand kept getting tighter and tighter around the shoulder joint. It was only a matter of time before either she or his skin would give out.

His skin was the first to give. The girl's small hands clawed their way through skin and kept on going deeper. Trails of crimson liquid leaked out of the five puncture wounds as the lightning mage screamed in agonizing pain. He thrashed and wiggled on the ground, desperately trying to get away from the hands burrowing beneath his flesh. His attempts were futile and only served himself more pain and prolonged suffering.

The scariest part about the whole ordeal was how Sofia reacted. She treated it like a kid's game and she was actually having a lot of fun doing this. "Come on; hold still so I can dislocate your shoulder." She giggled eerily as her hand dug further into the man's shoulder, eliciting a holler of pain. When her fingers finally found what seemed like bone tissue, she immediately let a few drops of Orga's blood that coated her hand to form a layer of crimson on the actual bone. As the layer grew in thickness, the pressure on the bone increased. It wasn't until Sofia lightly tapped the blood covered bone that it collapsed under the weight of the blood.

The green haired man screamed in pain as the little bits of crushed bone embedded itself into the surrounding muscle tissue; some traveling even further than that and penetrated his veins, circulating through his body. The fear and pain was so intense that small pinpricks of water leaked out of his tightly shut eyes.

While Sofia watched him squirm and scream on the ground, she unconsciously licked her lips. Something about a fully grown man crying in pain was extremely exciting. She wanted to see more of it and kneeled down next to the Saber's other shoulder joint. "NO! Please Don't!" The pleading screams fell deaf upon Sofia's ears as she slowly clawed into the soon-to-be-broken shoulder. The red head's hand tunnelled through Orga's flesh like a worm before her tiny hands enclosed themselves around the shoulder joint. She snapped it in half and yanked out a piece of the bone.

The audience cringed in horror, disgust and shock at what the twelve year old was doing to the Saber. They had their suspicions that Blue Pegasus and Sabertooth had some sort of rivalry going on but to this extent? To the extent of public torture and murder? This was going too far but the spectators couldn't do anything. They paid good money to watch the events in person and this is what they get; a real life horror film.

While the audience watched in horror, the mages from the stands remained impartial. They had seen things like this on their many job requests; some had even been through worse situations than this. To them, it was something they saw at least once a month and they were used to bloody battles. The only thing they were concerned about was learning new strategies from the battle to defeat future opponents at least, the non battling guilds were. The ones that had members fighting on the field right now were cheering, booing or plainly watching.

Sabertooth just watched one of their strongest members get tortured by a twelve year old girl. It would be embarrassing to even show their faces in public after this whole ordeal was over and, if Orga lost… they didn't want to go down that road. Normally, the loser would face public humiliation, torture and a fate so painful, they would have wished they had perished in the battle before.

"R-Rogue kun… will Orga go insane like Rufus did?" A small, green cat wearing a pink frog costume asked his dragon slayer partner. The slayer just clenched his hands into fists and tensed up. It took over thirty seconds for him to answer. "…I don't know Frosch. I just don't know." In the shadow dragon's mind, he knew it was over for Sabertooth. Orga was a man who could take a ton of pain but once that threshold breaks, he's reduced to a snivelling idiot who begs for mercy like a pitiful dog. Rogue quickly shook those thoughts out of his head and turned his focus onto the battle below.

"There, now you have a matching set." Sofia stated proudly and gave herself a pat on the back while admiring her handiwork. Two gapping holes stood in place of where his shoulders were and a broken rib jutted out of his side. She knew he wouldn't be able to use his breath attack but just to make sure…

The red head kneeled down on the green haired man's arm to avoid touching the hot ground. This caused him to scream in pain again and thrash around his lower body. "P-P-Please, n-n-no more…" Orga panted and squinted to block out the sun and Sofia from his field of vision. All he wanted was to be free of this torture but unfortunately for him, the red head wasn't merciful… ever.

"Don't worry; I just have to do one more thing to you to prevent you from using any attacks." The Saber felt a hand grasp his lower jaw and his eyes snapped open. Terror flashed across his irises and he opened his mouth to scream but was muffled by Sofia's fist in his oral cavity. "The torture will be over soon." Her hands found their way to his upper and lower jaws and pried them open. The pressure never let up but only increased as time went by.

"Ah, the jaw is always the hardest part to dislocate and break." Sofia sighed and continued to pull apart Orga's mouth until she heard a satisfying crack. Instead of an ear-splitting scream, a small whimper escaped the lighting mage's mouth. With his jaw dislocated and partly broken, the slayer couldn't even scream without pain coursing through his body.

There was only a certain amount of pain a person could tolerate before they loose consciousness and Orga was on the brink of going unconscious. Black spots danced in front of his eyes and his body seemed to be numbed out. It could have been the blood loss finally taking a toll on his battered and bruised body or just him saying he had enough. He couldn't move and could barely breathe. But he could still hear.

Sofia took in a deep breath, inflating her lungs and cheeks. "Bellow of the blood god!" A mighty jet stream of red and black shot out of the red head's mouth and collided with the almost lifeless body of Orga, sending him flying straight into the stadium walls. When the attack faded, the Saber's body fell to the ground with a sickening thump. His eyes were rolled back into his head, signalling his defeat.

But, Sofia wanted something from him and kept advancing closer and closer to the helpless body until she stood over him. She wanted her trophy for her win and she would get it. Her pale hand clenched around the black headband he always wore and yanked it up with one fell swoop. The red head held up the headband for the world to see. It was just like the battle with Rufus. When he was defeated, Sofia removed his most valuable possession and allowed everyone to have a glimpse at what the memory mage looked like completely and utterly defenceless. Now, she was doing the same thing to Orga. She was humiliating him in front of many people and allowing him to disgrace the Sabertooth name for her.

"K-kabo! Sofia Phire has won the three way god slayer battle! Ten points to Blue Pegasus!" The pumpkin ran down from the judges' panel and checked over the lightning mage. He immediately called for a medical squad and within seconds, Orga was loaded onto a stretcher and carried away by men in white. A few trained professionals stayed back to monitor the condition of the sky dragon slayer. She didn't have a very rough beating, just a lot of blood loss.

When the medical team did their job, Sofia quietly walked back to her guild balcony with the headband wrapped around her wrist. She was greeted by a hug from her big sister. "Your second win against Sabertooth. What a trooper!" The albino smiled happily and pulled away. She turned to the other members of the guild. "I say we have a celebratory party to honour Sofia's win and because of her win…" The dragon slayer pointed to the holographic scoreboard. There, written in blue lettering was Blue Pegasus. They were in the lead with ninety seven points.

"We're in first place!" She finished excitedly and clapped her hands together. A brilliant idea popped into her head. "How bout we all go to the hot springs tonight to celebrate and relax before the last day?"

"That sounds good. I need some time for relaxation." The red head stretched her limbs and yawned. She was drained out from the three way battle and a giant hot bath to relax her muscles in sounded quite nice. 'It will also give me some time to think about the event that will happen tomorrow. I still can't figure out what will happen at the time when the North Star switches over completely and the planets align.' Sofia added in her head while the others made plans about the hot springs.

"I wonder if my darling Erza will be there." Ichiya said with hearts in his eyes as he went off to his own little world. A shiver worked its way up Sofia's spine. She felt bad for the other red head having to deal with that obsessive freak but hey, better someone else than her. While the ginger did whatever he was doing, Hibiki and Eve also had dazed looks in their eyes.

"Hopefully there will be many beautiful females for us to entertain." The taller blonde smiled dreamily.

"… Aren't you and Jenny dating or in some kind of relationship?" Aster deadpanned and waited for Hibiki's reaction.

"…"

"Everyone saw the two of you making out just a few minutes ago…"

"…"

No words escaped the tightly shut lips of Hibiki and Aster soon gave up on trying to coax an answer out of him. Instead, she gently grabbed Sofia's arm and dragged her towards the hot springs. "Come on guys! We don't have any other battles today so let's get there early!" The albino cheered as she continued to pull the red head along.

"You go on ahead. We'll catch up after we get Ichiya sempai out of his daydream state." The snow mage called back to the white and red duo while Hibiki desperately tried to snap the ginger out of his trance like state. Nothing he seemed to do worked on their sempai.

"Alright, don't take too long." And with those words, the duo of slayers walked out of Domas Flau and towards the hot springs. As they passed the Fairy Tail balcony, Sofia's sensitive ears picked up on the celestial mage whispering to the fire mage about an Eclipse gate. At first she pushed the thought to the corner of her brain but when the duo passed the judges' panel, she heard them talk about the Eclipse gate opening on the last day too.

'Just what does this mean? Could the Eclipse gate be linked to the astrological events set to happen tomorrow? Or is it just something like the after party of the GMGs?' Sofia had a bad feeling in her gut. She knew it wouldn't be the latter.

* * *

"Ah, relaxation at last." Aster let out a quiet hum of relief as she let herself soak in the hot water. A small folded up towel was placed over her head to prevent the loss of heat from her cranium. The water was hot yet soothing at the same time and Aster slowly dipped her head below the surface. Only her eyes remained above the water just like Sofia.

While the albino relaxed in the water, the red head was deep in thought. She knew the war with Sabertooth wasn't over yet but that wasn't what she was dreading. Tomorrow was the day when all the planets align and the North Star shifts over. Ironically, that was also the day when the supposed "Eclipse gate" is going to open. All these thoughts and more swirled around the blood mage's noggin.

'What does it mean?' Sofia silently thought as she watched her sister practically melt into the hot spring. Her thoughts trailed back to the first time she met Aster. 'That was a long time ago…' A sense of nostalgia washed over her as she felt a flashback pushing through the surface.

_An eight year old Sofia carried a single red rose as she walked into a cemetery. Gravestones of all shapes and sizes littered the yellow grass. The cemetery wasn't under the control of any government forces so no employees would clean up the place. That was just fine with the red head. _

_Her pace slowed as she reached the far end of the burial site. Sofia's hands trembled as her insomniac eyes locked onto the cursive lettering carved into rock._

_**Poise Loire**_

_**Loving mother and grandmother**_

_**X709- X787**_

_The person that lay buried under soil was Sofia's grandmother but the red head thought of her as a mother. She was the one who raised her since infancy and after fighting a five year long war with cancer, finally passed on. _

_It was a sad day for the blood mage. The young girl slowly sat in front of the tombstone and laid the rose on the cold rock. The temperature was dropping and there was a high chance of a storm today but she didn't care. She visited the grave every year on this exact date. It was sort of a tradition for her. _

"… _It's been a while, hasn't it grandma? Three years have passed since you left this world and since then, a lot of things have changed." Sofia tilted her head up and saw the sky darken rapidly. She inhaled a deep breath before she spoke to the grave once more._

"_For one, I have become a fully fledged mage. I know it wasn't always what you wanted me to be but the jobs pay for food on the table and a place to live in though I don't stay in one place too long." The red head chuckled for no apparent reason. She just thought her sentence was humorous. _

"_I normally just take a job request, finish the job and rent a hotel room for the night. I know what you think; I shouldn't waste money on something as trivial as a hotel room when I can save it and buy a nice house. I just… want to travel around and do all the things I couldn't have normally done." A sad smile crossed the mage's face as she continued. "But… if I became a mage before X784, I could have saved you. The only reason why I dabbled in magic was because of you. I wanted to save you, that's why I became a blood mage, so I can save my loved ones with my magic."_

_The young girl sighed as she was immersed in her memories once more. She truly didn't want to dwell on the past but, it was so hard letting go. "But that never happened. You died before I could save you, before I could master my magic. If only you had just a month more then I'm sure you would have survived." A choked sob rose in the red head's throat as she thought about that faithful day. She was in the waiting room, hands fidgeting when the doctor came out with a grave expression on his face. At that moment, she knew her grandmother had passed. _

_A tear trickled down her face before it fell onto the ground. More tears followed in its wake and before she knew it, her vision was blurred and she could barely speak. Ironically, this was when the first few drops of rain fell from the sky above. It seemed like even heaven was crying for her._

"_B-but, I have come to terms with it. I knew that if you were alive, you'd tell me to stop blaming myself for it and you're right. I should continue with living and not dwell on the past." Her small hands wiped away her rain-mixed tears and she inhaled deeply. The rain fell harder and harder, pounding on her small body. Her clothes were completely soaked, the wind was picking up but she didn't feel cold; she felt numb. _

_Sofia felt a cough rise in her throat and knew it was time to go before she caught something worse like pneumonia. She quickly propped herself onto her feet and stared at the tombstone. "Thank you grandma… for everything." With a lighter heart, the red head walked away from the grave with the single rose. Just as she was about to leave the cemetery, she heard someone crying. _

_Her attention was immediately driven to the crying and her legs brought her in front of another tombstone with a white haired girl crying in front of it. She looked to be a few years older than Sofia but when she was crying, she looked much younger. The shorter _

_girl looked down at the crying girl before looking at the gravestone. _

_The gravestone wasn't really a proper gravestone. It was just a slab of rock stuck deep into the earth with messy scribbles written with limestone. The pouring rain had washed much of the scribbles away but the important parts were still legible. _

_**Glace Sang**_

_**X780 – X787**_

_**The best exceed anyone could want or have. **_

_**My best friend.**_

_**Goodbye and have a peaceful afterlife. **_

'_Exceed? As in those cats that follow a dragon slayer? If that's true then this girl - this pitiful crying girl must be a dragon slayer.' Sofia realized with widened eyes. Luckily for her, the crying girl didn't notice her or even if she did, she chose to ignore her. _

"_Hey, crying girl - get up." The eight year old said with authority laced in her voice. The albino girl swiftly whipped her head around to look at the intruder. She wiped her eyes on her drenched shirt sleeve and stood up, trying to act tough. _

"_W-what do you want?" Her voice cracked many times throughout her sentence and she closed her eyes, took in deep breaths of air to calm herself down. When she opened her eyes, the first thing Sofia noticed was the color; they were a crimson red, just like hers. _

"… _Your eyes… they are the same color as mine." The red head gestured toward the tombstone with her head. "And judging by the dead exceed in the grave, I'm guessing you are a dragon slayer?" She raised an eyebrow as she watched the other girl's expression._

_First came confusion then anger and finally, deduction. The albino glared heatedly at the red head, as if wanting to tear her apart with her bare hands. "Who are you?" She seethed through clenched teeth. Her anger and the pile of emotional stress was getting to her._

_Sofia introduced herself with a small but mocking bow. "My name is Sofia Phire, the bloody god slayer. Who might you be?" Immediately, she saw the albino's eyes dilate for a split second before they went back to their original size. _

_It took her a while to answer but when she did, it surprised the red head greatly. "… Aster Sang, the dragon slayer of blood." It was Sofia's turn to go wide eyed. How coincidental was this? She had stumbled across a girl in a graveyard who had the same element and basic powers as her. They also both had a loved one buried in this cemetery. _

"_We aren't that different, you and I. We both have a loved one buried here. You have your exceed and I have my grandmother. We also have the same power with only minor tweaks… if I didn't know better; I'd say you were a sister from another mother." Sofia said with a small smile and extended her hand to Aster. "We should stick together, always protecting each other's backs like real sisters would. Think about it, we are almost exactly alike in terms of powers and past-"_

"_-We are nothing alike, you don't know my past so stop trying to become my friend. I know your kind, you manipulate people to think that you will always be there for them but in reality, you are the one that needs a shoulder to lean on. You make up for this insecurity by finding weak, broken people and using their weakness to your advantage." Aster's blood red eyes bore into the red head's crimson ones._

"_I don't fall for silly tricks like those… not anymore. If you wish to be my friend and sister, prove it. Prove that you aren't picking me because we are so alike and I'm at my weakest point right now. Prove that you just want a companion and not a therapist. Prove that you are strong." The albino stared at the red head before extending her arm._

"_Do we have a deal?"_

_Surprisingly to say, Sofia was quite taken back by the girl's choice of words and observation skills. It was nearly parallel to her own… nearly. _

_With a look in-between a smile and a frown, Sofia clasped the albino's hand and shook it. "You got yourself a deal." _

"Hey Sofia! Did you hear a word I just said?" The line of dialogue snapped the red head from her flashbacks and turned her attention to the semi irritated albino. Said albino just shook her head disapprovingly. "Are you having one of those weird flashbacks that the narrator needs to write to explain your past and is an essential part to the story?"

The red head just shrugged in response. She knew Aster was kind of famous for breaking the fourth wall, heck, sometimes she did it as well. "…Remember the time we first met?" An odd question it was, but still a question. Aster had to dig through her brain to find that memory. "Yeah, it was in a graveyard where our loved ones were buried. I remember it clearly; there was a storm on that day and I was crying. You came up to me; we talked a made a deal." Aster smiled and turned to look at Sofia who only had her eyes and nose above the hot water.

The red head slowly poked her entire head above the water. Her crimson eye stared at nothing in particular. "… You never told me your life before the day we met; what was it like? What was it like having a dragon parent?" She inquired and watched her sister's face distort into a frown. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." She added quickly but Aster just raised a hand to stop her.

"It is fine, I trust you enough to tell you my story. Now… where do I start?" The albino swam through the hot water and sat beside Sofia who was looking at her, curious to know about her past.

"My dragon parent was Sang, the blood dragon. She was a powerful being but very violent and power hungry. I'm not sure how she stumbled across me since I was too young to remember but there were a few things I did remember. On my third birthday, I stumbled across an odd looking egg in the woods we lived nearby. For some reason, I felt a pull towards that egg and brought it home. Sang was impartial to it and said as long as I keep my training up, I can keep the egg. Days of gruelling training went by. Every day I had to roar like a dragon until my throat became raw. Every day I had to push a boulder uphill to test my strength as a dragon. Every day I had to fight like a dragon." Aster sighed and leaned her head back on a rock. Her eyes stared at the starry sky above and she continued.

"But, that did shape me to become the person I am today. It honed my skills as a dragon slayer and, as a person I became stronger. I still remember that faithful day…"

"_I can't believe you did that! He was an innocent!" The ten year old albino shouted at the massive Chinese dragon in front of her. Aster clenched her small fists at her sides and tried not to cry. 'Sang just killed him, just like that… I never got to say goodbye, I couldn't even give him a proper burial!'_

_The beast stared at her with its ebony eyes, devoid of emotion before it turned its back to her._

"…_That boy, he was a nuisance to your training. He had to be taken care of." Sang slowly stated. She had to choose her words carefully. She couldn't afford to make any mistakes with her pupil, not this time. After all these years, the day has come. She just needed to provoke Aster a bit more._

"_Besides, he wasn't worthy of being called a dragon slayer. He was just a poser-"_

"_-No he wasn't! He was the best friend anyone could have hoped to have! He taught me more about dragon slaying magic than you ever have. He was more of a dragon slayer than I ever was, heck; he __**killed**__ his dragon parent and ate the dragon's bones to become a 4__th__ generation slayer!"_

"… _What about all those he killed?" _

"_He didn't kill anyone! He's not that type of person!" Aster stomped her foot on the dirt, causing a small cloud of dust to rise. She couldn't believe Sang would actually say something like that. Tears welled up in the young girl's eyes and she quickly wiped them away. They were a sign of weakness and dragons could never show weakness. _

"_Bullshit, you didn't know him that well did you? All 4__th__ generation slayers have everything else the previous generations have but they also possess a triumph card. This power is only obtainable after they killed their dragon parent and take whatever element the parent possesses but, there is always a downside to the activation process. When they are near other dragon slayers, instinct tells them to kill and eat the other slayer to activate that power. In a sense, this is natural selection at its finest." The black dragon stopped for a second and looked at her pupil who was shaking. Sang knew she only needed to push the albino a bit more before she snaps. _

"_In reality, your friend was a bone-thirsty beast who only got close to you so he could kill you and devour your bones."_

"… _S-shut up…" Aster whispered in a tone so low that even the dragon had difficulty hearing it. She didn't want to hear any more of this but Sang kept talking._

"_The only reason why he didn't kill you sooner was because of me. I was the one always watching your exchanges and protecting you from afar."_

"…_Please shut up." Aster said a bit louder this time. If the dragon heard it, she ignored it and continued with the story._

"_He killed so many others. Why do you think dragon slayers are so uncommon now? A long time ago, there were thousands in the world and they evolved over the years until the first 4__th__ generation slayer came to be. The slayer killed many dragon slayers and feasted upon his own brethren. Recently, he has been killed by yours truly and now-"_

"_**SHUT UP!**__" The albino had enough of her mother's jabbering. Her skin, instead of the normal whitish hue, turned a bright pink color. Beads of red escaped each of her pores and slowly linked together to form a suit of armour that covered the ten year old's frame. _

_She opened her crimson eyes to stare directly into her mother's ebony orbs. A murderous mask stretched across her face as she leapt into the air, fought like a real dragon with the intention to kill._

"The battle was long and difficult and I barely survived. The only reason why I did was because I drank my dragon's blood, every last drop. The carcass almost immediately melted into the ground and I stood where Sang died. My suit of amour was badly damaged but I was lucky to be alive." Sofia listened attentively. Aster's back-story was a very interesting one.

"After Sang died, Glace and I went traveling around the continent. It wasn't until two years later that Glace passed. I was heartbroken and lay near her corpse for three days. When I finally saw her fur and skin rot away, I knew it was time to bury her. I went to the closest cemetery I could find and stayed there for another three days… that's when you came into the picture." She gently patted her sister on top her head, smiling as she did so.

"You know the rest from there." Sofia nodded slowly. Her mind was still pondering what Sang said before she was killed by her pupil. "Have you ever activated the 'power'?"

The albino shook her head. "Luckily I haven't yet but I have a feeling it's going to happen soon. The power can only be activated if I drink a dragon slayer's blood and there are five dragon slayers at Domus Flau; the chances are pretty high." She sighed and stepped out of the hot springs. She grabbed a white, fluffy towel and wrapped herself in it.

"Let's go. I'm tired and need some sleep for tomorrow's games." Sofia nodded and copied her sister's actions. The duo swiftly changed into their day clothes and walked back to the inn. When they entered, they immediately went to their respective beds, said a quick goodnight and went to sleep.

Or at least they tried to. Both girls were deep in thought. The red head was thinking about the astrological events that were going to happen tomorrow and the albino thought about her past.

Sofia couldn't shake off that ominous feeling poking her from the back of her mind. Something about Aster's past bugged her. The power that was supposedly awakened when she drank another dragon slayer's blood hasn't been awoken yet. This chilled her to the bone.

'A catastrophe that happens every seven years… I fear it will happen once more but this time, it will affect everyone on the global level.' The blood mage tucked a hand under her pillow and rolled over so she was facing the window. Her crimson eyes stared blankly at the full moon as if expecting some kind of answer. 'Five extraordinary wizards, spilt blood of the highest order and a sacrifice.' The prophecy kept repeating inside Sofia's head until she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

On the other side of the room, Aster laid on her bed. Soft snores escaped her mouth, indicating she was in a deep sleep. Though she didn't battle today, she was still incredibly worn out.

The moonlight shone through the open window. The light slowly illuminated everything in the room including both of the sleeping girls. Suddenly, Aster's shadow twitched and pulled itself upright. It detached itself from its owner and stood over the albino's bedside, watching her sleep. The black figure slowly brought a hand onto the sleeping girl's head and left it there.

With a voice so low that no one could hear, the shadow whispered, "How nice it is to see you again. I hope you are ready for tomorrow because I am. The fate of humanity has been sealed. Your race will be demoted to insects after tomorrow and I will become the god of the new age. Sleep well tonight for it will be the last time you ever will. Goodnight and pleasant dreams." The shadow planted a kiss on the dragon slayer's forehead before returning to what a normal shadow does; follow its owner until the end of time.

* * *

**Well, that was a long chapter to write. I was trying to cram a lot of details into the ending-ish of this chapter. The part I like most about this chapter was the flashback for Sofia's past. Honestly, she is my favourite character to write and I think a lot of people can relate to her. Her past was a normal-ish one and she wasn't raised by a dragon.**

**Speaking of which, the character I hate writing would really have to be Aster. I had honestly loved writing her in the begining but after the third chapter, she kinda became a pain in the butt. I had to constantly add her to convertsations/ squabbles because she is the main character and I have to build up suspense and stuff for the 5th day of the GMG's. **

**Speaking of the 5th day, the next chapter will be a very long one. A lot of stuff happens in that chapter so keep your eyes peeled when it comes out. To be honest, this story is almost halfway finished (give or take a few chapters) and I intend to finish it before I go to china for the summer. **

**I already have an idea (2 actually) for how this piece will end and if I should write a sequel. I feel as if sequels take away from the original story and a lot of them are very bad (twilight -.- should have just stopped at the first word of the first book Meyer) but there are a few that are quite good and give a more in-depth view of the characters. I'm just not sure of the sequel right now :$ depends on what I what to write after this fic is finished. **

**-Storm Caleum**


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